Life with Lightning
by Kataang9
Summary: This story takes place six months after Cocoon's fall, where Lightning takes Hope in after discovering what happened with him and his dad. Hope now lives with Lightning. Also, there's gonna be characters from other FF games guest staring (Just thought it would be interesting like how ObstinateMelon in Deviantart does it in his FFVII comics) Ignoring events of Final Fantasy XIII-2.
1. Day 1 - Beatings and Medics

After Cocoon's fall, its citizens are now living on Pulse. Civilization has been rough since they're beginning their life all over again. Lightning and the others were able to help everyone with survival since they'd had some experience on Pulse as l'Cie.

It has been six months since the fall of Cocoon. Vanille and Fang awoken from their crystal slumber two months ago, and now they're making a new life in Oerba. Oerba is all ready starting to return to it's old days. It's not filled with flowers, but there are small gardens around the houses.

In New Bodhum, Lightning is now living with her sister and her fiancé. Lightning isn't really too comfortable with the big oaf moving into her new home. But at least the rest of his team NORA isn't moving in, no, they're actually living in their cafe house right down the street. It's only terrible for Lightning if they ever come visit.

Right now, Lightning is sitting on the couch, trying to call Hope. It's been a whole week since she last heard of him. Lightning's starting to worry about him. Normally, she and Hope are real close. If anything would happen, like Hope's on vacation, he got into an accident or he's going to be too busy to even call or text, she would know. But she didn't receive any news.

After a minute of ringing, Lightning receives a voice message, telling her to leave a message. After the beep, Lightning hangs up and sighs. That's when Serah and Snow shows up.

"Hey sis." Snow says.

"How many times do I have to tell you? I'm not your sister!" Lightning says.

"As soon as me and Serah are wedded." Snow wraps an arm around Serah's shoulders. "You will be."

Lightning almost threw up in her mouth hearing that, then she shook her head. "I don't have time to deal with you."

"You still worried about Hope?" Serah asks.

Lightning nods. "I haven't heard from him all week. And he and his dad didn't say anything about anything going on that's preventing Hope from talking to me."

"I'm sure it's nothing." Snow says.

Lightning just glares at Snow. "Aren't you worried? You're the one who promised to look after him."

Snow isn't pleased to be reminded about Hope's mother, he already felt bad that he just cast her promise aside, feeding Hope's anger, enough to cause him to get revenge on Snow.

Lightning walks off. "I'm gonna go check on him."

Serah looks at Lightning all worried. "But, Lightning. New Palumpolum is like 50 miles away."

Lightning grabs her Gunblade and starts heading out the door. "I'll be fine."

Lightning gets into her car and starts driving. Hope has been living with his father in New Palumpolum. Lightning hardly gets the chance to visit Hope with being busy working in the Guardian Corps, and she's sometimes too tired to drive 50 miles after work to visit.

After an hour of driving, Lightning arrives at Hope's home. New Palumpolum is currently a small town, compared to what it use to be back on Cocoon. Lightning can see the driveway is empty, Mr. Estheim, Bartholomew, is probably gone. Lightning walks up to the door and knocks.

"Hope?" No answer, Lightning knocks again. "Hope? Are you home?" Lightning opens the door, to her surprise, it's unlocked. She walks into the house to find it empty, and also messy. It's like someone skipped out on cleaning.

On the floor, Lightning sees piles of bottles. She picks up one of them, to her curious, she sniffs at the tip of the bottle. She's surprised to catch the familiar stanch of whisky, but then becomes worried seeing all these empty bottles. She figured Bartholomew was drinking, but she's worried that Hope might be as well, a young 14 year old, turning 15 soon, getting drunk.

"Has he been drinking? Is that why he's been quiet lately?" Lightning wonders.

Lightning decides to go upstairs, she knows where Hope's room is at, and she figured he could be there. Lightning arrives at Hope's room at the end of the hall. Lightning knocks at the door, she was about to ask if he's in there, but she stopped when she hears a scared scream from behind the door.

"P-please! Don't hurt me!"

Lightning feels confused. "Hurt you?" She whispers, opening the door. Lightning enters in Hopes room, to her surprise, she sees him cowering on the corner. What surprised her most is the statement he's in.

His clothes are a torn mess, he has a black eye, a couple of bruises, a cut on his arm, his hand on his rip cage.

"Hope?" Hope was startled, he looks up to see it's only Lightning.

Lightning rushes towards Hope. "Li-Lightning? What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? What happened to you?" Lightning asks. She puts her hands on his shoulders. As soon as she does, he wince and cried out. Lightning retreated her hands. "Sorry...wait here."

Lightning gets on her feet and leaves Hope's room. She returns with a damp rag and a small pack of ice. Lightning kneels in front of Hope, and hands him the ice pack. "Here, you should ice your eye."

Hope nods then holds the ice pack on his eye. Lightning gently rubs the rag on Hopes cut. He groans painfully a little.

"Hope, who did this to you?" Lightning asks.

Hope hesitates to answer Lightning's question. "D-dad."

Lightning is surprised. "Your dad?" Hope nods. "Why? What happened?"

"He's been drinking a lot in the past month." Lightning can tell that was an obvious answer. "About a week ago, he started blaming me for my mom's death. He mentioned it's my fault she's gone cause I was too weak and helpless, that she risked her own life just to save me."

Lightning sighs. "Hope, why didn't you tell me?"

Hope looks up at Lightning with tears in his eyes. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't want you to think that I was...weak and helpless. I thought I could handle him...Also, every time I try to reach the phone, he just stops me."

"You are not weak and helpless. You are stronger then you think. We wouldn't have been able to get through being l'Cie without you." Lightning gently wipes away his tears from his cheeks. "Nobody deserves this, Hope, especially from their parents." Hope slowly nods. "Where's your father now?"

"H-he went to get more whisky. Then he said when he gets back...he's gonna finish the job." Lightning widens her eyes hearing that. She feels horrified that, even drunk, Bartholomew would stoop that low. "Wh...what does he mean? I-is he going to..."

Hope gulps at the thought of what he meant. Lightning was about to speak, but was interrupted when she hears a door slam from downstairs. Even Hope is in fear. "He's here!"

Lightning slowly stands up and makes her way to the door. When she reaches the door, she puts her ear on it, listening closely. She can hear Bartholomew marching towards Hope's room.

Lightning positions herself to the corner of the room, out of sight and behind the door when it opens. She looks at Hope, silently shushing with a finger on her lips. Hope nods, understanding what she means.

Bartholomew opens the door, he looks angry and drunk, in his free hand is an empty bottle of the whisky. He slowly approaches to Hope, Hope just back up on the wall like a coward. Bartholomew takes out a knife. Lightning gives a disappointed look and shook her head.

Lightning sneaks up to Bartholomew. Bartholomew became surprised when he feels something grabbing his shoulders. "What the-"

Lightning slams Bartholomew against the wall, grabbing him on his shirt, lifting him off of his feet. "What the hell is your problem!?" Lightning shouts at him. "Why on earth are you doing this to Hope!? Why are you blaming him for Nora's death?! It wasn't his fault!"

Bartholomew was about to speak, but Lightning slams him into the wall again. "Get this through to your head: If you were a complete stranger, I would have killed you the moment you walked right in. The only thing that's keeping me from doing that is because you're his dad!"

Lightning loosens her grip on Bartholomew, then she holds her hand out. "Now, you're going to give me the knife, and go apologize to Hope. Right. Now."

Bartholomew slowly hands the knife to Lightning. Lightning gives him a look that's saying 'Do it!'. The moment Bartholomew had the knife on Lightning's hand, he didn't let go, instead he quickly smashes the whisky bottle on the side of Lightning's head, shattering the bottle and knocking Lightning down.

Hope was worried seeing that. "Lightning!" Lightning moans as she lays on the floor, putting a hand on her head. Bartholomew stands beside Lightning, ready to stab her with the knife, but Hope slams at him with his body. "Dad!" Bartholomew stumbles back then falls back on Hope's desk.

Lightning turns her head, seeing what Hope did. Hope groans in pain at his aching body, realizing that wasn't such a good idea. "Leave her alone!"

Bartholomew growls at Hope, then spits on the floor. Bartholomew makes his way towards Hope, who is now backing away until he's cornered. Bartholomew is in front of Hope as he raises the knife, ready to strike.

"This...hic! Is for Nora!" Bartholomew says.

He was about to strike, until Lightning grabs his wrist, pulls him back against the wall. Lightning holds him in place, moving her fist back, ready to punch.

"Hope." Hope looks at Lightning, both concern and worried. "Look away. You do not want to see this."

Hope believes that she's right, so he closes his eyes and covers them with his hands. That's when Lightning begins beating the hell out of Bartholomew. Punches in the face, kicks in the gut, elbow jabs in the stomach.

Hope just reacts nervously to the attacks Lightning's giving Bartholomew. He isn't seeing any of this, but he can just imagine how the fights going from all the beating and blow noises.

Finally Lightning tosses Bartholomew to the ground. Bartholomew is about to get up, but he freezes as Lightning takes out her Gunblade and points it at him. Hope takes a peek, too afraid to fully see what he thought was gonna happen next. Bartholomew backs away as Lightning moves closer and closer to him. Bartholomew corners himself. He raises his hands open as Lightning has the tip of her blade touching his throat.

"Heed my words:" Lightning growls at him. "If you ever, and I mean EVER, hurt Hope again, touch him, or even come near him. It'll be the last thing you'll ever do. Am I clear?" Bartholomew nervously nods, Lightning kept glaring at him. "You are pathetic."

Lightning twists her weapon to it's side then hits Bartholomew in the head, knocking him out. After that, Lightning puts the Gunblade back in it's holster, then she moves to Hope. She kneels in front of him. "You okay?" She calmly asks.

"I'm fine." Hope whispers. Hope gently places a hand on Lightning's head. "You're bleeding."

Lightning puts a hand on the coat of blood on her forehead, she figured that was caused by the bottle that hit her. "I'm fine, it's probably just a cut. Come on, let's get you to a hospital."

Lightning helps Hope stand up. She wraps an arm around his waist with Hopes arm over her shoulder. Lightning helps Hope out of his house and into the car. Lightning gets into the drivers sit and starts driving.

Lightning drives to a nearby hospital, three blocks from Hope's house. As soon as she parked the car, she helps Hope enter the hospital. They arrive at the receptionist, Lightning demends an immediate treatment for Hope.

In almost no time, three doctors arrives with a stretcher. Hope lays in it and two doctors takes him to the examine room, while the other doctor takes Lightning to one of the patient rooms to check out her cut.

"How did this happen?" The doctor asks.

"I got hit in the head." Lightning says.

"I can see that, but from what?"

"A bottle."

"I see." The doctor gets a close look at Lightning's cut. "Doesn't look deep at all. Of course if it was, you would probably be dead." Lightning just rolls her eyes. It's probably obvious.

After the doctor was done with the cut, Lightning sits in the waiting room. Nurse Rosa from FFIV walks in and approaches to Lightning. "Ms. Farron? You here for the patient, Hope Estheim?" Lightning nods. "He's going to be fine. No serious injures, just a few cuts and bruises. But we are gonna keep him over night just to make sure." Lightning smiles, hearing that Hope's okay. "May I asked how this happened?"

Lightning isn't sure if she should explain the whole 'Father beating up and attempted to kill his whole son' situation.

"Eh...well, Hope was in an ally and...he was getting beaten up by a thug." Lightning lies.

"Okay. By the way, Hope wishes to see you." Rosa says.

The nurse escorts Lightning directly to Hopes room. There, Lightning finds Hope laying on the bed, with a sadden expression.

Lightning approaches the young boy. "Hey. You feeling okay?"

"Yeah." Hope says.

Lightning sits on the chair by his bed side. Hope gently raises his hand to Lightning's bandage on her head. "Does it hurt?"

"A bit. Not as bad as the beating I gave Bartholomew." Hope chuckles a little hearing that, Lightning smiles as well. After their short laughing, Lightning grabs hold of Hopes hand. "Hey." Hope looks directly at Lightning. "I'm sorry about your dad."

"It's okay." Hope whispers. "I always knew we wouldn't get along well, especially since mom's no longer around to keep us together."

Lightning nods, understanding. "I called the Guardian Corps while I was waiting, they are gonna take care of your dad. He won't bother you again."

"I don't think he ever well after what you did to him before knocking him out." Hope gives a small frown. "What am I going to do? He's all I had left."

Lightning shook his head. "No he isn't."

"What do you mean?" Hope asks.

"Hope. You can come live with me, in new Bodhum. You can still have a family. Me and Serah...and Snow of course. You want to become a Farron?"

Hope doesn't answer, he's pretty surprised to hear that. He's never really expected Lightning to take him in, compared to her usually attitude, even through she does go soft for him.

Hope answers with a smile. "Yes. I would like that very much."

Lightning smiles. She puts a hand on Hopes head and gently strokes his silver hair. "The doctors are going to keep you here over night, do you want me to stay?"

"No, I'm okay. Besides, I think there's someone who's going to be worried about your disappearance."

Lightning nods, she's knows it's true, especially since she forgot to call Serah about what happened. She's gonna need an explanation soon.

"All right. I'll come back tomorrow to pick you up, then I'm going to take you to your home."

"Why?" Hope asks in confusion.

"To pack your things, silly." Lightning says, gently flicking him in the forehead. Hope and Lightning laughs. "Anyways, I'll be back in the morning. Take care."

Lightning gives Hope a kiss on the forehead, then she makes her leave. "You too." Hope says as she leaves.

Lightning makes her leave from the hospital, she's surprised to see how late it already is, the sun is setting and the moon is about to raise. Lightning gets into her car and drives away.

In about forty minutes, Lightning arrives at home. Inside the house, Serah is pacing around, worried, while Snow is just sitting on the couch watching her. Lightning enters the house, that's when Serah rushes up to her and gives Lightning a hug.

"Oh, Clair. I'm so glad you're okay." Lightning gently shoves Serah off of her.

"I'm fine, Serah." Lightning says. "Sorry I was a little late."

Serah gasps at the sight of Lightning's forehead bandaged. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Lightning puts a hand on her bandaged head. "I'm fine, it's just a cut."

Snow walks up beside Serah. "Whoa. What happened, sis?"

"I am not your sister!" Lightning says to Snow, in an angry tone. "I found Hope but...something terrible happened."

"What happened?" Serah asks. Now Snow starts to worry when he heard that.

Lightning explains the what happened to Serah and Snow, about what happened to Hope, what he father did and was about to do. Serah look horrified hearing the whole thing.

"That's horrible. Why would Mr. Estheim do this?" Serah asks.

"Cause he's a drunkhead." Lightning answers.

"Where's Hope right now?" Snow asks.

"He's in the hospital. They're only keeping him over night just to make sure he's okay." Snow sighs in relief hearing that. "Oh, so now you're worried?" Serah and Lightning laughs, making Snow feel ashamed. "Anyways, Hope's going to be living with us. When he gets here, please don't mention anything about his father."

Serah and Snow nods. "But wait, where's Hope going to sleep? We don't have a guest room."

"We'll work something out." Lightning says.

After their conversion, Serah makes dinner. After dinner, Lightning goes straight to bed, it might be the loss of blood or the concussion from her head injury, but she's tired. So she goes to bed early, leaving the happy couple alone to do their lovey-dovey thing.

**A/N: I almost hurled writing that ending.**


	2. Day 2 - Moving in

In the morning, Lightning was the first up. She goes into the kitchen and made herself some coffee. While she's waiting for the coffee to be made, she starts to think about Hope, the poor defenseless young boy at the hospital, who recently lost his mother in the Purge war, and now lost his Father.

Lightning remembers the helpless little wimp Hope was when they first became l'Cie. It's like seeing him that way all over again. Lightning returns to her senses when she hears the ding from the coffee machine.

Lightning pours some coffee into her cup and starts drinking, that's when Snow wakes up and walks into the kitchen. "Oh hey, si-" Snow becomes quickly interrupted when Lightning holds her Gunblade in front of Snow's face, ready to shoot. Snow gets really nervous. "Uh, uh...Hey...Lightning."

Lightning lowers her weapon. "That's better."

Snow exhales in relief. "So, what are we gonna do about Hope?"

"I was thinking we empty out that storage room so Hope can use it." Lightning takes another sip of her coffee.

"But where are we gonna put all that stuff?" Snow asks.

"We'll move them into the shed in the backyard." Lightning says.

"We don't have a shed." Snow says.

"Then build one with your silly gang." Lightning says.

"Okay, okay." Snow says.

After Lightning finishes her coffee, she leaves her house and makes her way to the hospital in New Palumpolum. When she arrives, Lightning makes her way to the receptionist.

"I'm here for a patient. Hope Estheim." Lightning says.

The receptionist nods. "Yes. Mr. Estheim. Room 15."

Lightning nods and makes her way to Hope's room. She arrives at his room, to her surprise, the young boy is still asleep. Lightning walks up to Hope and sits beside him, she couldn't help but smile, he looks so peaceful asleep. Lightning gently strokes his hair, being careful not to wake him.

Hope moans and shifts in his sleep, trying to get more comfortable. The doctor suddenly comes in, he's surprised to see Lightning's here.

"Excuse me?" Lightning turns to face the doctor. "Please don't disturb the patient."

"I'm not disturbing him, I'm just visiting.' Lightning walks to the doctor. "I'm his caretaker, Lightning Farron."

"Oh, my apologizes. Mr. Estheim is all set for leave." Lightning nods and the doctor leaves. Lightning returns to Hopes side.

After about twenty minutes, Hope finally wakes up. He's a little surprised to see Lightning. "Good morning." Lightning whispers.

"Morning." Hope says. "How long have you been here?"

"Not long. How did you sleep?"

"Not well." Hope says. "I kept having nightmares about my dad. I got really scared." Lightning feels bad for the young boy. "I probably should have asked you to stay."

"I'm sorry you had a rough night." Lightning says. "Anyways, whenever your ready, we can leave."

"I'm ready now if that's okay."

Lightning nods. She helps Hope get on his feet, he's able to stand, but his walking is a little rough. Lightning and Hope leaves the hospital, and Lightning drives them back to Hope's home. She parks the car in the driveway.

"I'm gonna leave you here so you can pack up. I'm gonna came pick you up after work." Lightning tells him.

Hope gets out of the car. He makes his way to the house. Lightning drives out of Hopes house and makes her way back at New Bodhum. In about thirty minutes, Lightning makes it to the Guardian Corps military base.

When she enters the building, she was greeted by her lieutenant. "You're late, Farron. I expect more from you." Amodar says.

"Sorry lieutenant." Lightning says, saluting. "I was looking after Hope."

"The Estheim kid?" Lightning nods. "I see. Actually, Farron, I've been meaning to talk to you about him." Amodar escorts Lightning into his office. Amodar sits at his desk and Lightning takes a sit right in front of him. "I'm sure that you are aware that mr. Hope Estheim is a motherless child."

Lightning nods. "Yes, lieutenant."

"Well, now that he's father is in prison, and Hope has no other relatives and he's too young to be on his own, I'm afraid he'll be placed in an Orphanage."

Lightning is surprised to hear that. "But, Lieutenant, I already told Hope that he could come live with me."

"I'm sure you did, but I'm afraid there's no other choice, Ms. Farron." Amodar says.

"What if I adopt him?" Lightning asks.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Amodar asks. "I mean, no offense, but don't you already have your hands full looking after yourself and your sister."

"Yes, and unfortunately Snow too." Lightning says. "But I know Hope, and he's not going to be that much of trouble."

Amodar sighs. "Very well. I'll hand you the adoption papers for the boy after work." Lightning nods. "Now head to the training rooms, the new recruits are waiting for you."

Lightning stands and salutes. "Yes, sir."

Lightning makes her way to the training room. When she resigned to the Guardian Corps, Lightning was in charge of training new recruits. It can be an annoying job since most of the rookies are usually goofing off or not even bothering to learn how to work a sword or a gun. She still handled it, she's dealt with Snow.

On her way, Lightning walks by the prison hold that Bartholomew is held in. Lightning locked her eyes on the drunk man as she walks by him, then looks forward after passing the cell.

"Pathetic." She says under her breath.

Lightning enters the training room. She's right now starting the day with her first trainee, Squall from FFVIII.

"All right, rookie. Let's see what you can do." Lightning says.

"I don't get why I need to train." Squall says, taking out his gunblade. "I'm already an excellent fighter and an expert of the gunblade."

"Yeah, well it's required. Don't complain." Lightning tells him.

Lightning spends her day training the new recruits. Some she's really proud off, few she's ticked off with. At the end of the day, Lightning picked up the adoption papers.

"All you need to do is have the kid sign them." Amodar says. "Have a nice week off, Farron."

"Thank you, sir." Lightning says, as calm as she could be. Amodar decided for Lightning to take a vacation, boy does she really need it, especially since there's the fact Hope is moving in and he'll need her around the house help him recover from his wounds, emotional wounds that is.

Lightning makes her leave from work. She's pretty upset at the training sessions with the fool rookies, one of them almost shoot Lightning in the head. If he was any worse then Snow, she would have killed him.

When Lightning reaches to her car, she takes a deep breathing, trying to calm her emotions. She has to go pick up Hope and she doesn't want to get him in a bad mood.

Lightning drives all the way to New Palumpolum, by the time she arrives, it was very cloudy, and soft thunder strikes, Lightning can tell it's gonna rain. Lightning parks her car in front of Hope's house. She walks up the front steps and knocks on the door. Hope answers the door with a small sorrow expression.

"Hey, you ready to go?" Lightning asks.

"Almost. I'm just finishing up." Hope says. Lightning walks right in, and Hope shows Lightning the packages in the living room. "There's the stuff I've already packed. If you don't mind carrying them into the car."

Lightning nods, Hope returns to his room while Lightning takes care of loading up the car. What Hope packed are his clothes, stuff, posters, a few antiques that belonged to his mother. By the time Lightning finished loading up the car, it started to drizzle. She had to dig into the trunk of the car for the umbrella.

Lightning rushes into the house. She doesn't see Hope in the living room, she figured he's still in his room. She makes her way to Hopes room. There, she finds him sitting in front of his last package.

"Everything's in the car." Hope doesn't say anything, he doesn't even look at Lightning, as if he didn't hear her. Lightning walks up to Hope, move behind him. She looks to see he's staring at a picture, a picture of him and his parents. Lightning puts a hand on his shoulder. "Hey." Hope looks up at Lightning, with a tear escaping from his eye. "Everything's going to be okay...you'll see."

Hope slowly nods. "I know..." Hope gently lays the picture in the box, then closes it. Lightning escorts Hope to her car, since she has the carry the umbrella and have to keep Hope dry while he's carrying his box.

They get into the car and Lightning drives off. While they're driving, Lightning looks at Hope constantly, since she has to keep her eyes on the road (You go, Lightning!) Hope is just looking down, staring into space with a sad expression. Lightning sighs quietly. Lightning drives into an ice cream parlor and parks into the parking lot.

"You want some ice cream?" Lightning asks. Hope looks at Lightning with a slight confusion. "I just thought it might help you feel better. Come on, it'll be my treat."

Hope hesitates for a moment to answer. "Yeah...okay, some ice cream does sound good."

Lightning comes out of the car. She makes it to Hopes side and opens his door, she wants him to stay dry from the rain, had to make him wait for her to come to his side with the umbrella.

Hope and Lightning enters the ice cream parlor. Hope orders a chocolate milkshake, as soon as he gets it, he and Lightning returns to the car. Lightning drives home while Hope eats some of his ice cream.

In about an hour, Lightning arrives at her house. As usual, she gets out with the umbrella and moves to Hope's side. Hope walks right into the house with Lightning. They enter the house to find it dark and quiet.

Lightning closes the umbrella and sets it by the door. "I guess Serah and Snow are out tonight." Lightning says. Lightning walks into the kitchen, Hope follows her from behind. Lightning opens the fridge. "Well, we have plenty of leftovers. What do you want? Behemoth stew, some salad, stir fry?"

"The stir fry would be nice." Hope says.

Lightning takes the stir fry and some leftover stuffed chicken. She reheats the food, then she and Hope sits on the table, eating in silence. While their eating, Serah and Snow walks right into the house, they're laughing and smiling. Of course that ends when they see Lightning and Hope in the dinning room.

Lightning looks ahead to see her sister and Snow. "You guys back already?" Lightning asks.

"Yeah." Serah answers. Serah sits on the chair next to Hope. "Hey, Hope. You feeling okay?"

Hope doesn't bother to look at Serah, just stare down at his dinner. "Yeah."

Snow places his hands on Hopes shoulders. The impact makes Hope shake a little. "Hey, sorry about your dad, man."

Lightning glares at Snow. "Snow!" Lightning says in a loud whisper.

Hope looks up at Lightning. "No, Lightning. It's okay." Hope looks back down at his dinner. "It's fine."

After dinner, Hope leaves the table. Lightning stands up as well, Lightning shows Hope the bathroom so he could take a shower. Afterwards, Lightning joins Serah and Snow in the living room.

"Would you two mind helping me unload the car?" Lightning asks.

Serah and Snow agrees to help out. Everyone unloads all of Hope's packages from the car, and place them in the corner of the living room. They did got really soaked from facing mother nature's tears. Lightning found a suitcase that's carrying Hope's clothes. She takes them to the bathroom Hope's in, she opens the door, but only a creek. "Hope!" Lightning yells loud enough for Hope to hear over the roaring sound of the shower. "I have your clothes outside the bathroom door!"

"Okay!" Hope yells back. Lightning closes the door. Serah and Snow returns inside with the last of Hope's belongings. Serah sits on the couch, shivering.

"Hey, you cold?" Snow asks.

Serah looks up at Snow, forcing a smile under all that cold shivering. "Y-y-yeah."

Snow sits next to Serah and wraps his arms around her, that's, unfortunately, when Lightning comes in, with a pillow and a cover, and sees them snuggling. "Aww, don't worry. I'll keep you warm, baby."

Serah smile and blushes. "Aww, aren't you a sweetheart, Snow."

Lightning can feel herself throwing up in her mouth. "If you two are going to get all lovey-dovey, can you do it when I'm not around?"

Snow and Serah were startled from Lightning. "Oh, come on, Lightning. Go easy on us." Snow says.

"I let you marry my sister, didn't I?" Lightning says. Snow and Serah frowns at Lightning. Lightning just rolls her eyes and sighs. "Just don't do it on the couch, that's where Hope's gonna lay."

"No problem." Snow stands up, Serah was about to get off the couch, but then Snow carries her off of the couch. Serah was certainly surprised. She laughs as she wraps her arms around Snows neck and he carries her past Lightning and up the stairs.

Lightning just sighs and shook her head. When they were out of sight, that's when Hope starts walking down the stairs, in his pajamas. Lightning takes Hope to the living room couch.

"Here's the deal, we have a spare room, but it's currently being used for storage." Lightning and Hope stands in front of the couch, where Lightning puts the pillow in place and lays the cover over the couch. "It's going to take a while to handle everything, in the meantime, you're going have to sleep on the couch." Lightning looks at Hope. "Unless you prefer to share my bed."

Hope shook his head. "No thanks, the couch is fine."

Lightning smiles then ruffles the young boys hair. "Good to hear that. If you need anything, come see me. My room's at the end of the hallway upstairs." Hope nods. "Well, good night."

"Good night." Lightning makes her way to her room. Hope just stands there and watches her until she was out of sight, then he lays down on the couch. He just lays on the couch, staring at the ceiling. He could hardly fall asleep, until finally slumber overwhelms him.

Later at night, Hope is tossing and turning, moaning in his sleep. In his dreams, Hope's in no where but darkness. He just stands there, wondering where he or anyone is, until the darkness clears and he finds himself at the broken bridge of the Hanging Edge. Hope walks to the edge of the bridge, he looks down to see something he didn't want to happen: His mother dangling from the bridge.

Hope tries to reach down for her. "Mom!"

Nora looks up, she gives a smile with a sad expression. "Hope..." Nora loses her grip and falls to her death, Hope screams in horror at the sight of his mother falling into the darkness. After she's gone, Hope sits down, curling up in despair, that's when he becomes surrounded by a ring of fire.

"It's your fault! YOUR FAULT SHE'S GONE!" A deep, loud voice echoes. Bartholomew raises from the fire, growing large. Hope turns around to see his dad and crawls back in fear. Bartholomew takes out the knife. "This is for Nora!" Bartholomew stabs the dagger into the ground, causing a quake. It rushes towards Hope, until the crack widens open enough for Hope to fall in.

Hope falls into the darkness, until he crash lands on the ground. Hope looks around to see he's in the Vile Peaks, on the bridge where he and Lightning fought Odin. Hope tries to get up, but there's some powerful force that's holding him down. He looks ahead to see Lightning is walking away from him.

"Lightning! Please, help me!" Hope pleads.

"This isn't working." Lightning's voice echoes. "You're a liability. You'll just slow me down." Hope starts to worry hearing that, then Lightning turns around, looking mad and her eyes are just all white. "You want to get tough!?" Lightning takes out her Gunblade and points it at Hope. Lightnings voice on the next sentence sounds like a blast of thunder. "DO IT ON YOUR OWN!"

Lightning jumps high in the air, she falls towards Hope, with her weapon hold in front of her as she dives down at the helpless boy, that's where she stabs him right in the heart. Hope screams in agony, then in fear when he wakes up. Hope pants and sweats. He gets a grip on his chest, where Lightning stabbed him. After a moment, he notices he's back at her house, he starts to calm down realizing it was only a nightmare, then tears starts to escape from his eyes and slide down on his cheeks.

Hope decided to get off the couch and go see Lightning. He goes upstairs, head to the end of the hall where Lightning's room is at. He just stands in front of her door, looking at it, he's starting to have second thoughts of bothering Lightning, remembering what happened to her in his dream. Even under all that, he still needed her comfort. Hope shallows hard and slowly reaches for the knob, in hope that nightmare doesn't some true.

Hope slowly enters Lightning room, only to find the soldier asleep in her bed. Hope slowly, quietly walks up to Lightning beside her bed. "Li-li...Light?"

Lightning slightly opens her eyes. In the darkness, she sees the scared silver hair boy. "Hope?" Lightning reaches for the switch on the lamp and turns it on, brightening the room. "What is it?"

Hope looks down in shame and scarce, mostly scared. "I-I...had a nightmare."

Lightning's expression softens. She moves aside, making room. Lightning pats on the extra space on the bed. Hope hesitates, but he decided to get on the bed. Lightning sits up as Hope sits next to her. "What happened? Do you want to talk about it?"

"I was...I was there." Hope answers. Lightning doesn't understand what he means, then realizes what he's talking about. "I was there when she died." Hope looks up at Lightning. "Then my dad came. He yelled at me. 'It's your fault! Your fault she's gone.'" Lightning tries hard to resist the urge to comfort the poor boy, for him to finish his story. "He jammed that knife into the ground, causing a fissure for me to fall in. When I land...I was at the Vile Peaks. I couldn't move, could barely breath. When I asked you for help...you." Hope slowly looks down with worry. "You called me a liability. And then you...you."

Hope couldn't say what happened next. Instead, he grips at his chest and starts crying. Lightning can tell from the gripping what happened next, realizing that, she hugs hope, pulling the poor boy close to her. "It was a nightmare, Hope. It's okay. It's over now."

"I know, but...I'm still scared." Hope says.

"It's okay, Hope. It's okay." Lightning whispers in a gentle tone. "You don't have to be scared. It wasn't your fault Nora died. It was the Sanctums. You're father's not going to hurt you. You are not a liability. I'm sorry I ever called you that, I didn't mean it."

"I know, Light. I know you didn't mean it. But, I'm just...I'm scared." Hope grabs hold of Lightning around her waist. "I've lost my mom, now my dad. I just...I don't want to lose you." Hope looks up at Lightning with tears in his eyes. "You're all I have left. I don't know what I'll do if-"

"Shhh." Lightning wipes the tears from Hope's cheeks. "Say no more. I'm not going anywhere, Hope. I'm right here for you." Lightning hugs Hope. "You're not alone, we're all here for you. Serah, Snow, Sazh. Vanille and Fang too." Lightning shifts her hand to Hope's hair, gently stroking it. "You're safe now, nothing's ever gonna change it."

Hope lays his head on Lightnings shoulder, crying. Lightning tries to comfort him. They sit in silence for a few minutes, until Hope speaks. "Can I lay with you? I don't think I can sleep alone just yet." Lightning doesn't say anything. "I-I promise, it'll just be tonight."

Lightning shook her head. "No, you don't have to promise that. You're always welcome to lay with me, I honestly don't mind, Hope."

Hope sniffles. "Thanks, Lightning."

Lightning smiles. "Clair." Hope looks up at Lightning with confusion. "Call me Clair."

"Why?" Hope asks.

"It's my real name, before I became Lightning." Lightning says. "You're apart of this family now, Hope. You can call me by my first name."

Hope smiles at Lightning. "Okay, thanks." Hope starts to yawn.

Lightning just laughs at the tired boy. "Okay, time to go to sleep." Lightning and Hope lays down on the bed. Lightning pulls the cover up to their shoulders. Hope lays close to Lightning. Lightning turns off the lamp, then she hugs the boy as he lays his head on her chest. "Hope, do you remember what I said in Palumpolum?" Hope slowly nods. "I still mean it, I'll always keep you safe."

Hope blushes a little, suddenly feeling really warm. "Thanks...Good night, Clair."

Hope falls asleep as Lightning gives him a kiss on the forehead. "Good night, Hope. Sweet dreams."


	3. Day 3 - Birthday

Serah wakes up in the morning, yawning and stretching. She makes her way to the kitchen to notice something strange. There's no a single scent of coffee, and Lightning's not in the kitchen as usual. Serah looks out the window into the driveway, her car is still here. When Serah returns to the living room, she also noticed Hope's missing.

Just when Serah was about to wonder what's going on, Snow calls out to her. "Serah." Serah turns to find Snow halfway up the stairs.

"Snow? Have you seen Lightning?" Serah asks.

Snow nods. "You need to see this, come here."

Serah follows Snow upstairs, down the hallway, all the way to Lightning's room. Serah suddenly worries when she realizes they're at her room. "Snow. Are you crazy? That's Lightning's room!"

Snow puts a finger on his lips and hushes at Serah. "Trust me, you're gonna want to see this." Snow whispers.

Snow and Serah sneaks into Lightning's room. Snow had to slowly, carefully open her door, not to disturb her. Lightning's usually known to be the easiest person to wake up, her years of soldier training really comes in handy. Of course that'll also mean you'll have to be very careful to wake up her, and hope she doesn't carry that Gunblade.

Snow and Serah stick their heads in, to see Lighnting's still asleep. They walk inside and tip toe next to her bed. There, they see that Lightning and Hope are asleep under the covers. Hope is smiling with his head on Lightning's shoulder, while Lightning is making her usual expression in her sleep, but she does have her arms wrapped around Hope.

Serah shouldn't help but smile, feeling heart-touched. "Awww. They're so cute together." Serah whispers.

"I'm really gonna enjoy having Hope around." Snow whispers.

Snow takes out a camera, but Serah grabs hold of it, stopping him. "Snow, Lightning's gonna kill you if you get a picture of this."

"It'll be worth it." Snow pushes Serah's hands off of the camera.

He aims it at Lightning and Hope, and then, SNAP, Snow captures it on camera. Snow looks at the picture on camera, then shows it to Serah. She just about have the same reaction from when she saw them when they walked in, but then Lightning moans in her sleep and shifts her body a little. Serah and Snow flinches a little, afraid that Lightning's gonna wake up and get mad at them, well mostly at Snow. But they silently sigh in relief, she was just trying to get comfortable.

Realizing this isn't a safe territory, Serah and Snow sneaks out of Lightning's room. Serah and Snow returns into the living room. Someone knocks on the door, Serah answers the door to see it's Vanille.

"Serah!" Vanille says with a cheer.

Serah smiles. "Vanille. What are you doing here?"

Vanille walks right in. "Lightning told me and Fang to come over for Hope's surprise party."

"Oh, that's right. It's his birthday today." Serah says. "Where's Fang?"

"She'll be here, just picking up the decorations." Vanille says. "So, is Lightning up?"

"Not really. She's still asleep, with Hope." Vanille looks confused as she tilts her head. "Hope's living with us now."

"Oh, really? Why?" Vanille asks. Serah explains everything that happened to Hope the other day, back in New Palumpolum. Vanille gasps when she heard the part about Bartholomew hurting Hope and was about to kill him. "Oh, that's awful. Poor Hope."

"Yeah. It was terrible. Anyways, Lightning's still asleep with Hope." Serah says.

Snow walks behind Vanille and holds the camera in front of her, showing her the picture. "See for yourself."

Vanille puts her hands over her mouth, gasping, then she gives the biggest, goofiest grit as she moves her hands under the chin. "Aww, so adorable."

Serah laughs. "Yeah. It's nice seeing Lightning care for someone, other then me of course."

Serah and Snow goes into the kitchen. When they weren't looking, Vanille goes up the stairs and makes her way to Lightning's room. Vanille sneaks into the room, there, she sees the Lightning and Hope remain unchanged, from the picture that is.

Vanille stands by the bed and smiles with a giggle. Lightning starts to wake up, a bit startled from the giggling. Lightning sees it's only a Vanille. She just looks at Vanille curiously, looking at that silly smile on her face.

"What?" Lightning asks.

"You two are just so cute!" Vanille says with a squeal at the end.

Lightning looks right next to her, she sees Hope sleeping close to her, and that she's holding on to him. Lightning suddenly remembers what happened last night, then she smiles. Hope just looks so peaceful sleeping. Lightning gives Hope a gentle stroke on the loose hair on his forehead, that's when he starts to wake up.

Hope's vision looks a little burry at first, then it clears and the first thing he sees is Lightning. "Clair?" Hope whispers.

"Hey." Lightning says with a quiet, gentle tone. "Good morning." Hope sits up, moaning tiresome, then stretches his arms. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah. Thanks." Hope's done stretching, then he becomes startled seeing Vanille. Vanlile just giggles at Hope. "Vanille? What are you trying to do? Give me a heart attack?"

"No, silly-willy." Vanille says, skipping out of the room.

Lightning gets out of bed, then Hope gets out after she does. "Come on, Serah probably has breakfast ready."

Lightning and Hope gets dress, Lightning stays in her room while Hope takes the bathroom down the hall, then they head downstairs. They enter the dinning room, where they see Snow.

"Hey, Morning Hope." Snow says.

Hope takes his seat. "Morning, Snow."

"Sounds like you're feeling better." Snow says.

"Yeah, just a little. I'm still a little bumped." Hope says.

Lightning stands by Hope, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Well, if I were you, I wouldn't be bumped today." Lightning says.

Serah walks into the dinning room with a stack of pancakes. She sets them on the table. "Morning Hope. Happy birthday." Serah says, as she walks up to Hope and gives him a kiss on the cheek.

Hope smiles at Serah as she returns to the kitchen. "Thanks."

Vanille walks in with plates, knifes and forks. She sets them on the table. Serah returns with a tray filled with glasses of Orange juice and a hot cup of coffee. Serah places each glass of orange juice on the table, the hands the cup of coffee to Lightning.

"Your coffee, sis."

Lighting accepts the coffee and smiles at Serah. "Thanks, Serah."

Lightning sits on the chair next Hope. Serah sits across from Lightning, next to Snow. Vanille sits next to Hope. They all din in on the breakfast. As they eat, everyone talks.

"So, Hope. What are you gonna do?" Lightning asks.

"I'm not sure. I haven't thought about it." Hope says.

Snow drops his knife and fork on his plate. "Oh come on! It's your birthday, there something special you want to do?"

Hope thinks about it, then he looks at Lightning. "Well, I guess it would be nice...to have a look around New Bodhum."

Lightning smiles. "If you want to take a look around, then sure." Lightning looks at Serah. "Serah, you mind showing Hope around?"

Serah nods. "Not at all."

Vanille raises her hand, shaking it in the air. "Ooh, ooh, ooh! Can I come? I want to look around as well!"

Everyone just looks at Vanille, with strange looks. For Lightning, it's just her usual expression. "Uh, sure." Serah looks at Hope. "Hope, you don't mind if Vanille comes?"

"Uh, no. She can come. The more the merrier." Hope says.

Vanille sequels and claps her hands together. Vanille sits back down, eating her breakfast, then a knock on the door happens. Serah gets up from her chair.

"I'll get it."

Serah walks up to the door. She answers it to find Fang. Serah is surprised to see her, but is disappointed to see the party supplies she's carrying in a box.

"What up, Serah? I'm here for the-" Serah shuts the door on Fang, which hits her in the face and causes Fang to fall in the rose bushes.

Serah quickly turns around, blocking the door like she's trying to hide it. Lightning looks back. "Serah, who was at the door?"

Serah looks at Lightning, then notices Hope is looking back as well. "Uh, no one. There was no one there." Serah makes her way back to the table. "Must have been some teenager playing Ding-Dong-Ditch." Serah chuckles nervously, then clears her throat looking at Hope. "Uh, Hope? You uh, want to get started on the tour?"

Hope just looks at Serah curiously and confused. "Uh...sure, I guess." Hope gets up from the table and carries his plate to the kitchen, Vanille does the same. After that, Serah waits out on the front door. Hope and Vanille joins her. Serah looks outside, to see Fang is gone, didn't even bother to look at the rose bushes she fell into.

Serah and Hope leaves the house and starts to go for a walk around New Bodhum, with Vanille skipping right behind them.

Lightning and Snow are in the kitchen, Lightning is working on the dishes while Snow carries the dirty dishes to the sink.

"Well, it's just you and me, sis." Lightning glares at Snow. "Sorry, force of habit."

Lightning just humphs and resumes on the dishes. "You know I'm gonna get you for taking the picture."

Snow instantly becomes nervous hearing that. "You-you knew?" Lightning glares at Snow with a nod. Snow nervously chuckles then a knock on the door happens. "I'll get it." Snow walks to the front door, he opens it to find Fang, holding the box with one hand and her other hand covering her nose. The girl is also covered in thorns and roses. Snow just chuckles a little. "Whoa. What happened to you?"

Fang just glares at Snow. "Your little girlfriend is what happened." Snow moves aside to Fang can come inside. "I just arrived with the decorations and she just shuts the door on me. Hit me right in the face and I fall in the rose bush."

Snow closes the door behind Fang. "Sorry about that. Hope was still here, guess she didn't want him to see you."

Fang walks into the kitchen, she places the box of decorations on the counter. Lightning turns to see Fang. "Hey, Fang."

"So I hear the kid's living here now?" Fang asks.

"Yeah. Hope had a rough time with his dad." Lightning finishes the dishes then she wipes her hands dry. "There'll be time for explaining later, right now we have a party to set up."

Meanwhile, Serah and Hope are walking down the sidewalk of the New Bodhum. Vanille is ahead of them, skipping and giggling with excitement. Hope couldn't help but smile at the silly girl.

"You excited?" Hope asks.

"Very!" Vanille says.

Serah laughs at the happy girl in front of her. Serah takes Hope to the NORA cafe. "Well, Hope. You remember team NORA?"

"How can I forget? Nora was my mothers name." Hope says.

Serah looks at Hope with a surprised look. "O-oh...really?"

"Yeah." Hope says.

"Okay. Well, this is their cafe." Serah and Hope walks right in.

They were greeted by Lebreau, who is wiping down the counter. "Hey, Serah. Good to see you here." Lebreau looks at Hope. "Well, is this the birthday boy I've heard about?"

"Yep." Serah answers.

Lebreau reaches for Hope to ruffle the young boys hair. After making their stop at the cafe, Serah takes Hope and Vanille back on the tour. They arrive at some school three blocks from their house.

"Over there is my school." Serah explains.

Hope takes a look at the school, it looks like an elementary school. "That's your school?"

Serah nods. "I'm a teacher." Serah notices a small group of kids. Serah waves at them. "Good morning." The kids notices their teacher and runs up to her. They gather around Serah, she laughs at the little kids then faces Hope. "These are my students."

Hope seems impressed. Vanille just claps her hands together. "They are so cute."

Serah nods in agreement, then she looks back at her students. "Now, did everyone do their homework?"

Marlene from FFVII raised her hand. "I did mine. Cause I didn't want you getting mad at me like last time."

Hope seems a little surprised to hear that, Serah feels bit shamed. "Hey, I wasn't that mad."

The kids just laughs, and then they started clapping their hands together, chanting 'Meanie ms. Farron.' What surprised Serah the most is that Vanille was joining in on the group. After ten seconds, the kids took off. Serah just watches them leaving, pouting, in a sad way.

Hope just laughs in the background, that's when Serah faces him with her arms crossed and giving him her sister's cold look. "Just what is so funny, young man?"

Hope just laughs, then clears his throat after five seconds. "Sorry. I just never thought of you ever being 'Meanie Ms. Farron'. You sure it's not Lightning who's teaching them?"

Vanille laughs at Hopes joke, Hope laughs as well. Serah just seems offended, but then accepts that it was funny and laughs along. "I guess Lightning's starting to rub off on me."

Serah moves on with the tour. In the afternoon, their final stop is the Crystal Pillar, that's holding the Crystalized Cocoon. Hope is amazed to see how beautiful it is in the daylight.

"You guys are lucky to get a view of the pillar. Especially this close." Hope says.

"You don't get to see the pillar?" Serah asks.

"Not really. New Palumpolum is pretty far, and the direction to the pillar is blocked by the cliffs." Hope turns his attention to Vanille. "I always wondered how you and Fang were doing."

Vanille smiles. "Aww, aren't you sweet." Vanille pokes the tip of Hope's nose and giggles.

"Well, that's it for New Bodhum." Serah says. "There anything else you want to do?"

Hope was about to answer, but Vanille jumps in. "Oh, oh. Oerba!" Vanille grabs Hopes hand, jumping and pleading. "You've gotta come see Obera! Please! Pwetty pwease!"

Hope couldn't help but laugh at Vanille's silliness, he turns his head so he's facing Serah. "I guess I'm gonna see Oerba."

Serah smiles. "Well, you two have fun."

Serah leaves Hope and Vanille, which worried Hope. "Wait! You're not coming?"

"Oh no, I'm sure Lightning wants my help at home." Serah just kept going. Hope was about to say something, but he knows words ain't gonna help. That and he's confused at what she means 'help at home'. Vanille moves behind Hope and starts pushing him. "Well, off we go."

In about thirty minutes, Serah returns home. She sees the house is nearly decorated. Lightning is working on the banner while Fang is working on supper.

"It's looking great so far." Serah says.

Lightning was surprised to hear Serah. "Serah? Is Hope with you?"

"Not really, Vanille's taking to see Oerba. At least she's bought us some time." Serah walks up to Fang in the kitchen. "Hey, Fang." Fang looks up at Serah, giving her a glare with her angry eyes and her bandaged nose. Serah chuckles nervously realizing what she's mad at. "…Sorry about earlier."

"If your sister and boyfriend couldn't overpower me, I'd get back at you for this." Fang says, pointing at her bandaged nose.

"Right…well, I'm gonna get started on the cake." Serah was about to get started, but then realizes there's someone in the group missing. "Where's Snow?"

"Your cheeky boy is blowing up the balloons." Fang answers.

Just then, Snow walks in, holding a dozen balloons in each hand. "All right, got all the balloons blown up." Snow says, with a really high pitched voice. Everyone in the house bursts out laughing, even Lightning. Snow seems confused at the laughter. "What? What's so funny?"

Serah walks up in front of Snow. "Sweetie. Ha, ha, ha. I think you've been inhaling too much helium." Snow frowns in embarrassment. "Don't be like that, I think it's cute."

Snow smiles, he lets go of the balloons, letting them fly into the ceiling. He lifts his fiancé in her arms. "I love you, baby." He says with his helium voice.

Serah just laughs and they kiss. Even under all that Snow humiliation humor, Lightning is throwing up in her mouth.

Meanwhile, Vanille is skipping through the caverns with Hope following her. The cave they're taking is usually a shortcut for walking from New Bodhum to Oerba. Of course it's no longer or shorter then driving there on the road, but, hey, some people just don't feel like driving.

Vanille looks ahead, to see how close they are to viewing the town. Vanille runs back to Hope. She stands behind him and covers his eyes with her hands. "Wha-Vanille!"

"No peeking, silly-willy." Vanille says with a giggle. Vanille guides Hope through the cave, until they're out in the sun. "Okay, get ready." Vanille makes Hope facing directly at Oerba, then removes her hands. "Ta-da!"

Hope is surprised to see Oerba. Even though the area that's 10 feet outside of the town still looks like a deserted, Oerba looked good as new. The buildings are not in smoking ruins and there are grass on the lands, and gardens near almost every house.

Hope and Vanille walks up into Obera, until they're standing on the grasslands. "It's not as much as it was back in my and Fang's day, but it's getting there."

"It's beautiful." Hope says.

"Tee-hee. Thanks." Vanille says.

"So, where's your home? Or are you and every else living here sharing all these houses." Hope jokes.

Vanille just laughs. "No, silly." Vanille playfully shoves Hope. "We decided not to do that. Some of the people got a bit too uncomfortable sharing their property with other people or strangers."

"Can't argue with that." Hope says.

Vanile shows Hope around town. The beach, the school, the large construction that's rebuilding that destroyed bridge road where Lightning and the others had their fight against Barthandelus.

Vanille takes Hope to her house by the beach. It's like a beach house. "Well, this is where me and Fang live."

Hope takes a look at the house. Vanille takes him inside, Hope is amazed at how it looks on the inside. "It's a nice place. Where's Fang?"

"Oh, I don't know. Probably out hunting." Vanille says. Even behind that innocent face and childish tone, she's lying. Vanille drags Hope to the living room. "Come, come. Sit." Vanille takes Hope to the couch for him to sit. "You need anything?"

"I am kind of thirsty." Hope says.

"Say no more." Vanille makes her way to the kitchen. Vanille returns in a minute with a glass of lemonade. "Here."

Hope smiles at Vanille, accepting the glass. "Thanks."

Vanille sits next to Hope on the couch, watching him as he drinks. "So, what do you want to do now, birthday boy?"

After Hope finishes drinking his lemonade, he answers. "Actually, I'm a little tired. I just want to go home."

Vanille moans curiously and tilts her head. She looks at the clock, noticing it's about 4:30 PM. Vanille figured it might be a good time, Lightning and the others probably have the party set up by now.

"Okay." Vanille stands up. "Let's go!"

Vanille and Hope leaves the house, making their way back to New Bodhum. Back at the house, Lightning is standing on a ladder, attaching the other side of the 'Happy Birthday, Hope' banner on the wall. Snow is underneath Lightning, holding the ladder in place.

"How's that banner?" Snow says, in his normal voice.

"Getting there." Lightning answers, annoyed.

Fang is right now in the living room, wrapping up her and Vanille's presents. Serah is by the window, keeping watch for Hope and Vanille. At about 5, Vanile and Hope came in sight.

"They're coming!" Everyone startled to hear that, but then relieved cause they just finished the decorations. At the last minute, Serah notices Lightning's not wearing a party hat, then goes ahead and puts one on her head. "You too, sis!"

Lightning sighs in annoyance, she doesn't really enjoy wearing silly accessories, even party hats on birthdays. Lightning decided to just wear it for Hope.

Everyone gathers in front of the door, then Vanille bursts in and quickly shuts the door. "Here he comes." Vanille joins the group.

Hope walks into the house. "SURPRISE!" Everyone shouts.

Hope was certainly surprised. He looks at his friends, then at the banner above them, and the balloons hanging around the house. Hope smiles.

"A surprise party? For me?"

Lightning walks up to Hope, opening her arms to hug him. "Happy birthday, Hope."

Hope hugs Lightning as he looks up at her. "Light, you did all this?"

Lightning smiles at Hope. "I planned the whole thing if that's what you mean."

Hope tightens his hug on Lightning. "Thank you." Lightning and Hope ends their hug, and Hope faces everyone else. "Thanks everyone...hey, where's Sazh?"

"He couldn't make it." Serah says. "Had to work overtime to pilot a resume team to rescue some helpless citizens in the Yaschas Massif."

"Oh." Hope's expression was normal, but his tone had a bit hint of disappointment.

Snow stands beside Lightning and Hope, putting his hands on each of their shoulders. "Enough talk. There's a birthday feast on the table that's waiting to be eaten."

Everyone but Lightning laughs at Snow's little joke. Everyone gathers around the table, chowing down on the fish casserole, rice and some corn. While dinning, everyone asked Hope how it feels to turn 15. Hope told everyone it's no different then being 14, still feeling like a kid. Hope would probably felt different if he was 16, being able to learn how to drive and all.

After dinner, Serah goes into the kitchen. Serah returns with a cake with 15 lit candles. As she approaches the table, Serah and everyone else sings Hope the 'Happy Birthday' song. Hope couldn't help but feels overwhelmed in all of this, especially from Lightning.

After the song, Hope blows out the candles. Everyone cheers after the candle blowing. Serah cuts the cake, handing everyone a piece, starting with the birthday boy.

After cake, everyone moves into the living room for presents. Vanille's present was the first to be opened. Of course it wasn't really Hope's choice, Vanille just shoved it to him. Too excited to even wait for Hope to pick it out.

Hope decided to open her present first. He opens it to find some bracelet, seems homemade and it's covered in beads. "A bracelet?"

"Um-hmm." Vanille nods. "Made it myself. It's a friendship bracelet."

"Oh, that's nice." Hope puts the bracelet around his wrist, where his l'Cie brand use to be. He looks at Vanille and smiles. "Thanks."

"Now do Fangs." Vanille suggests.

Hope decided to go with it. He knows Fang isn't much like vanille, but he probably knows that Vanille would probably shove it to him. Hope opens Fangs present. He sees something furry inside. Hope takes it out of the box, to see it's some kind of furry blanket.

"Uh...thanks Fang." Hope says, unsure of what it is exactly. "You brought me a...coat fur?"

"It's a fur blanket, kiddo." Fang says. "I didn't brought it, I skinned it from a wild Megistotherian." Hope gags and drops the blanket in front of him, surprised. Fang just chuckles and ruffles Hope's head. "Aww, don't be like that, kid. It's very usual for cold nights."

"She's right. It's like wearing five coats under two blankets. Keeps you nice and toasty." Vanille says.

"Uh...thanks, I'll keep that in mind." Hope says.

Hope next grabs Snow's present. Hope opens it to find some gift card for the NORA cafe. Hope seems somewhat unpleased but a bit thankful. Lightning looks at Snow after seeing the gift.

"Snow, you know he's too young to drink." Lightning says.

"Relax, Lebreau also serves drinks that are safe for kids." Snow says.

"Well, thanks, Snow." Hope says.

Serah hands Hope her present. "Now do mine."

Hope couldn't resist after Serah's kind tone and loving smile. Hope open's Serah's present to find...socks...Ha, ha, ha. Just kidding. It's actually a golden locket necklace. Hope seems a little confused, but it does look nice.

Serah grabs hold of the locket. "You open it, silly."

Serah opens the locket, to Hope's surprised, he sees a picture of his mother. Hope was silent, staring at the picture, then he looks at Serah. "Serah...how...why did you..."

"I knew you miss your mother dearly. So I took one of her pictures from your packages and asked a jewelry store to fame it into a locket." Serah explains.

Hope smiles at Serah and then hugs her. "Thank you."

After the hug, Serah looks at her sister. "Sis? Do you have something for Hope?"

Hope looks at Lightning to see a single nod. Lightning reaches into her leather pouch and takes out an envelope. "It's not as much as Serah's gift, but I do hope you'll like it."

Hope holds on to the envelope. He stares at it for five seconds, then opens it. He fines a folded sheet of paper. He unfolds it and begins reading.

"_By authorization of the Sanctum, Clair 'Lightning' Farron has been selected to become the official legal guardian of the orphan Hope Esithem."_

Hope is surprised. Serah looks over Hopes shoulder, reading the adoption form as well. Hope skims through the words, until he gets to the ending where he sees two lines where the caretaker's and the orphan's signatures goes. Lightning already signed it, and now it's Hope's turn to make his signature.

Hope looks at Lightning, who's smiling at him, holding out a pen. "It's all yours, if you sign it." Hope nods, he takes the pen and signs his name on the signature. "Welcome to the family, Hope Farron." Lightning says.

Vanille, Fang and Snow lets out a laugh on the Farron part. Hope lets out a smile. "Lightning...I, I don't believe this."

"Me neither." Serah sequels. She wraps her arms around Hope, tightening him in her embrace. "I finally have a little brother!"

Hope looks uncomfortable from the squeeze. He starts to gasp and his face turns red. "Can't. Breath."

Fang and Snow grabs Serah and pulls her off of Hope. When he was released, Hope gasps deeply for air, trying to fill his lungs with oxygen.

"Sorry, Hope. I just got so excited." Serah says.

Lightning just chuckles as she hands Hope another present. "Now for the second part of your present."

Hope looks at Lightning's present, it's still wrapped. Hope takes it and slowly unwraps it. Everyone gathers behind Hope, looking down at his present. Hope finally unwraps it to find a picture frame. Not just that, it's a portrait of him, Lightning, Snow and Serah. All of them standing in front of the Farron house in New Bodhum.

Hope remembers this picture, it was taken three weeks after Cocoon's fall, when they build the house. Shortly afterwards, Hope's father was found and then he took him back to live with him in New Palumpolum.

Hope looks at Lightning, completely speechless. Lightning was about to say something, but Hope quickly hugs Lightning. Lightning was pretty startled from the embrace, but afterwards, she hugs him back. Everyone really felt touched seeing this special moment.

"Thank you. Thank you, Lightning." Hope says.

Lightning just chuckles a little. "Hope, I told you, call me Clair. You are part of this family now."

Hope and Lightning ends their hug, Hope looks up at Lightning. "I know. I've just been use to calling you Lightning."

"First name privileges." Fang punches Hope on the shoulder. "You're going places, kid."

Hope nervously chuckles while rubbing his shoulder. After the presents, everyone decided to spend the rest of the night watching a movie. Half way through the movie, Vanille and Fang decided to go home, and then Serah and Snow went to bed, leaving Hope and Lightning all alone.

When the movie was over, Lightning turns the TV off. She looks down at Hope, who's resting his head on her shoulder with his eyes closed, smiling. Lightning smiles as well, he's sleeping. Lightning, very carefully just to not disturb Hope, lifts Hope, gets off of the couch and lays him back down, with his head on the pillow and laying the cover over his body.

Lightning leans in and gives Hope a kiss on the forehead, earning a smile and a peaceful moan from the boy. "Good night, Hope. Happy birthday."

Lightning makes her way upstairs into her room, turning in for the night.


	4. Day 4 - Errands

Next morning, Serah and Snow got up very early, even earlier then Lightning usually gets up at. They had breakfast and talked, real quiet just so they don't disturb the sleeping Hope from the living room couch. At 6, Serah and Snow leaves the house, Snow had left a note on the counter.

Thirty minutes later, Lightning is up. She's still in her pajamas, with her messy bed head, yawning. Lightning goes into the living room, where she sees Hope is still asleep on the couch. She just gives him a pat on the head then goes into the kitchen. Lightning starts making herself some coffee, starting up the machine. While she's waiting, she notices the note Snow left her.

She picks it up and reads it.

"_Dear Lightning._

_Me and Snow are going to be very busy today with the wedding. But we're going to be too busy to get everything done. Would you be a good sister and get everything listed below done for us? You're the best._

_Heart, Serah._"

Lightning smiles at the end of the note, but that disappears when she notices there's more, and it's not the list.

_"P.S. NORA is going to be coming over to work on that shed. Please be nice to them, especially Yuj when he's in a mood._

_Snow_"

Lightning hears the ding from the coffee machine. She pours herself a cup and drinks it. As she drinks, she looks over the list from behind the note.

_Send the __invitations_

_Order the cake: Order #1259_

_Set up the dinning room at the Healin Cathedral_

_Buy yourself a nice dress and shoes - Pretty please, dress nicely for once! If you dare skip on dressing nicely and wear your "Formal" Guardian Corps uniform, I swear, Clair Farron, me and Snow will move in and live with you and make you miserable for the rest of your life!_

The warning on the last item of the list scares Lightning. She can tell that Serah's not joking. Normally, Lightning isn't the kind of girl who has an 'Inner Sparkle'. She doesn't really feel comfortable wearing formal dresses or aching high heels.

Lightning sighs. "Fine, Serah. You win." Lightning says quietly.

Lightning sets the note back on the counter. Just then, she hears someone yawning, coming into the kitchen. She turns to see it's only Hope, who's just waking up. Hope stretches his arms in the air as he walks in.

"Morning, Clair." Hope says tiresome.

Lightning smiles at the tired boy. "Morning, Hope." Hope stands in front of the counter, as he reaches for one of the cabinets for a cup. He grabs the coffee pot and pours himself some coffee. Lightning seems surprised, she sets her cup on the counter. "Hope!"

Lightning takes the pot from Hopes hand and grabs the cup he was pouring into. "He-hey. Light!"

"You're too young to be drinking this stuff." Lightning says, pouring the cup into the sink.

"I'm only fifteen!" Hope complains.

"It's still too young." Lightning says.

Hope just frowns, he accepts defeat, knowing there's no way of winning an argument against Lightning. He sighs in depression. "Okay." Hope reaches into the fridge for some eggs. "I'm making breakfast. How do you want your eggs?"

"Scrambled." Lightning answers. Hope makes the breakfast on the stove, while Lightning leans against the counter with her coffee cup. "After breakfast, we're going to be doing some errands."

"Errands for what?" Hope asks.

"For Serah's wedding." Lightning answers.

"Oh right, it's in four days, isn't it?" Hope asks.

Lightning nods. "Yes, and sadly, Serah wants me to wear something dressy." Lightning says in disappointment. "We're also gonna need get you a tuxedo."

Hope looks at Lightning, surprised. "I don't want to wear a tuxedo."

Lightning gives Hope a cold glare. "If I'm going to be wearing a dress, you're wearing a tuxedo. End of story."

Hope sighs in defeat, returning his attention to the breakfast he's making. "Okay..."

Hope and Lightning sits on the table, eating their breakfast in silence. Lightning was the first to finish. When she was done, she takes out a box filled with the invitations and sets them on the table.

"First item on the list: The invitations." Lightning says.

"We delivering them?" Hope asks.

"Not yet. They need to be sealed. Then we're gonna deliver them." Lightning says.

Lightning dumps the invitations on the table. Hope finishes his breakfast and helps Lightning sealing the invitations. Of course, he freezes when he sees one that's for his dad. Lightning notices and wondered what's wrong, until she looks at Bartholomew's name on the invitation.

Lightning reaches over the table for the invitation. "We won't be needing that one anymore." Lightning takes the invitation and tears it in half, which snaps Hope back into reality. Lightning and Hope finishes the invitations and puts them all back in the box.

"All right, time to mail them." Lightning goes into her room, Hope goes into the bathroom down the hall, and they both get dressed. After that, they're heading out the door, where they're greeted by team NORA. "What are you guys doing here?" Lightning asks.

"We're here to build that shed, didn't Snow tell yea?" Laguna says. Laguna from FFVIII

"Well, today I'm busy running errands. There's no way I'm letting you four running around my house unsupervised." Lightning says.

"Relax, Farron. We won't mess anything up." Lebreau promises. "We're just gonna be out back building that shed."

"Fine, but touch or break anything, you'll regret it!" Lightning walks right past the team. "Come on, Hope."

Hope follows Lightning, but before he passes team NORA, he hands them their invitations, then he catches up with Lightning. Lightning and Hope travels around New Bodhum, sending out the invitations to the guests. After an hour of traveling, Hope was starting to get exhausted, not as much to give up, he can keep going.

"All right, invitations are done...except for Fang and Vanille." Lightning says. "We'll do that on the way to the Cathedral where the wedding's gonna take place."

"Okay. What's next?" Hope asks.

"The cake." Lightning says. "The bakery's down the street."

Lightning and Hope arrives at the bakery: "Cakery" They arrive at the counter lady. "Welcome to Cakery, how can I help you?" She asks with a friendly smile.

"Hi, I need a wedding cake." Lightning says, handing the lady the order ticket.

"Oh, you're getting married?" The lady looks at Hope next to Lightning. "But uh...isn't he a bit too young to get married?"

Hope is shocked to hear that, he just blushes at the thought of marrying Lightning. Lightning however, wasn't very pleased to hear that. "I'm not getting married! And he's not my boyfriend. No, it's for my sister. She's getting married."

"Oh, I see." The lady looks at the order number. "Okay. When's the wedding?"

"Four days." Lightning answers.

The lady nods. "Okay. I'll have it ready by then."

Lightning nods. The cake lady goes into the back room, and Hope and Lightning makes their leave. Lightning and Hope returns home, just to get into Lightning's car.

"All right, next is the Cathedral." Lightning says. Lightning drives her way to the Archylet Steppe. But on the way, she makes a quick stop at Obera at Vanille and Fangs house. Lightning walks out of the car and at the door, knocking on it.

Fang answers it. "Lightning. What brings you here?"

Lightning hands out two wedding invitations. "I'm here to deliver you and Vanille invitations to the wedding."

Fang smiles and accepts the invitations. "Thanks, mate. You want to come in? Have a drink?"

"No thanks, we need to get to the Cathedral and help set up the wedding." Lightning gets back into the car and drives off.

Lightning drives all the way to Archylet Steppe, arriving at a small town known as Healin. Lightning parks the car at the parking lot of the Cathedral. Lightning and Hope gets out of the car and enter the Cathedral.

Lightning and Hope walks into the dinning room, there they find stacks of chairs and folded tables. Hope handles the chairs while Lightning takes care of unfolding the tables. Once they got started, Sazh shows up. He's certainly surprised to see Lightning and Hope here.

"Lightning? Hope?"

"Sazh? What are you doing here?" Lightning asks.

"Your sister asked me to help set up the dinning room." Sazh says.

"Okay then."

Lightning, Sazh and Hope sets up the dinning hall. Once that was done, Lightning and Hope says good-bye to Sazh, gets in the car and drives away.

"Is that it?" Hope asks.

"Unfortunately, no." Lightning says. "I need a dress and we'll need to get you a tuxedo for the wedding."

Hope sighs in disappointment. "Great..."

"It's no picnic for me either." Lightning tells him.

Lightning drives back to New Bodhum, she drives the car to a tailor shop: Tailor-tale. They enter the store, but when their separate ways. Hope seeks out the suits in the mens department while Lightning checks out the dresses in the women's clothing.

Each dressing Lightning looks at, she just feels more and more pathetic. She can't believe her own sister is making her do this. After looking over twenty dresses, she was just about to give up, but then Lightning runs into a dress.

The upper half of the dress is simple and plain, while the skirt part of it is in ruffles that goes down to the upper-lower legs (Basically under knees). The dress is all red with a black sash on the waist. The dress only has one strap, goes over the left shoulder.

Lightning doesn't really like the dress, but if anything, she hates it the least of all the other dresses. Lightning decides to try it on. She takes the dress and goes into the changing room. Hope looks over the suits, he finds a tuxedo with black dress pants that's about this size.

Hope takes the suit and goes to the changing room. When he's about to go in, Lightning comes out in her dress. Hope becomes completely shocked seeing Lightning in that dress. He just stares at her, amazed at her beauty. Hope never expected that Lightning Farron would ever look so beautiful.

Lightning notices Hope staring at her. She snaps right in front of him, snapping him out of his trance. "You're staring." Lightning tells him.

Hope shakes his head. "S-sorry. I just...I didn't expect you...in that dress."

"Yeah, well don't get use to it, I'm only wearing it for the wedding." Lightning says. "I don't really like dresses."

"Well, I think you should try wearing that one often. I mean..." Hope starts to get nervous, he even shallows hard. "You do...look beautiful in it."

Hope closes his eyes and cowers, expecting Lightning to hit him. But instead, Lightning just gives a chuckle, ruffles the boys hair. "Well thank you for the complainant." Hope calms down hearing that. Lightning looks down at the dress. "Maybe I'll give this one a chance." Lightning walks back into the changing room. "But I'm not gonna try and get along with heels."

While Lightning chances back into her normal clothes, the brown skort and turtleneck sweater vest with the white sleeveless jacket, Hope gets dressed in his suit. Lightning waits outside for him.

When Hope was done, he leaves the changing room, looking uncomfortable. Lightning smiles, he looks pretty grown up in that suit. "You look nice."

"I don't feel nice." Hope says, scratching himself. "This tux is itchy."

Lightning just laughs. "Wear some baby powder before putting it on. That should help."

Hope returns into the changing room and change back into his clothes. When he was done, he and Lightning pays for the clothes and then returns to the car. Lightning and Hope notice how late it's getting.

"You hungry?" Lightning asks. Hope nods. "I think there's a restaurant down the road."

Lightning drives the car down the road. She and Hope arrives at a restaurant known as 'Boiling Point' the waiter escorts Lightning and Hope to a table by the window.

Hope orders the Sweet and Sour chicken, Lightning orders the stuffed trout. The waiter leaves, Lightning and Hope waits for there food.

"Hey, Lightning?"

Lightning looks at Hope. "Hmm?"

"I was wondering...Do you think you can train me sometime?" Hope asks.

"Teach you how to fight?" Lightning asks.

Hope nods. "Yeah. I'm pretty much defenseless since I'm no longer a l'Cie. Don't have my magic spells or Alexander anymore." Lightning doesn't say anything. Hope clears his throat. "So...can you...teach me?"

Lightning gives a slow, single nod. Hope smiles. A couple of minutes later, their food arrives and they eat in silence. After eating, Lightning pays for their meal and they head home. When they're out of the restaurant, it's already pitch black.

Lightning drives the car to her house and parks it in the driveway. When she gets out of the car, she can hear loud construction going on at her house. She can tell it's team NORA and she's hoping they're working on the shed and not messing up the house.

Lightning walks into the house, then walks out back. She can see they're still working on the shed. The outlining is build and they're now working on the walls, doors and ceiling.

"Hey!" Lightning shouts. NORA stops their work and looks at Lightning. "Time to get!"

Maqui looks at his watch. "She's right, it's getting late."

Everyone puts down their tools and makes their leave. "We'll be back tomorrow." Gadot tells Lightning.

Lightning watches the team leave, then walks back into the house. She sees team NORA is gone, and Hope is walking into the living room in his pajamas.

"Going to bed already?" Lightning asks.

"Yeah. I'm exhausted." Hope says. Lightning just rolls her eyes, it's not that late, it's only about 8. She knows one thing Hope's gonna need to work on in his training: His stamina.

Hope lays on the couch, pulling the sheets over his body and his head on the pillow. "Good night."

Lightning sighs silently as she watches Hope drifting off into slumber. She just walks past the couch and goes into her room. She had a long day of traveling, so she figured it's best to get into some comfortable clothes.

Lightning goes into her room and chances into some pink shorts and a white shirt. She lays in bed and starts reading a book. Lightning reads the book for a while. Once she got to chapter three, which takes about two hours to get too, Lightning starts to get really tired.

She sets the book on the night stand and yawns. Lightning turns the lamp off and falls asleep.


	5. Day 5 - Mother's Day

At 2:15 in the morning, Hope just lays on the couch, tossing and turning. He's not having a nightmare, in fact, he's fully awake. He's having trouble falling asleep. He knows why he can't fall asleep, but he hates to think about it, cause it's about his mother. It's mothers day today.

Hope misses his mom, and this is his first Mother's Day without having a mother. He does have Lightning, his legal guardian. But thinking about that doesn't make it any better, he now feels like he's just using Lightning to replace his mom, which makes him have trouble falling asleep even more.

Hope sits up on the couch, he goes into the kitchen and turns on the light. He goes into the fridge for some milk. He sets the carton on the counter, then he reaches one of the high cabinets for a cup. He pours some milk into the cup. Hope walks up to a microwave, putting the cup in it and setting it for two minutes.

Hope stands by waiting for his drink. He leans against the counter, with his arms crossed, looking down in sorrow and shame.

"Mom...I'm sorry." Hope whispers.

Out of no where, Lightning jumps into the kitchen, with her Gunblade pointed at Hope. Hope becomes startled, he and Lightning both calm down as soon as they realize it's each other.

"Hope?"

"Lightning?"

Lightning sets her Gunblade aside. "What are you doing up?" Hope asks.

"I thought you were an intruder." Lightning says, walking up to her. "Why are you up?"

"Couldn't sleep." Hope says.

Lightning can tell something's wrong with Hope. "Why?" She asks.

"I just couldn't." Hope says.

Lightning isn't convinced and Hope knows it. The microwave timer dings, and Hope takes out his warm milk. "Hope, you can talk to me if there's something wrong."

Hope knows it's true, but he doesn't want to talk about his mother. "It's nothing, really." Hope takes a sip of his warm milk. Lightning walks by one of the drawer, taking out a spoon, she goes to the spice cabinet above the oven, reaching for the cinnamon.

Lightning takes Hopes warm milk and sets it down on the counter, then pours a bit of cinnamon in it. "A touch of cinnamon should help." She says, stirring up the milk with the spoon.

When Lightning was done stirring, Hope takes a sip of the warm milk, then smiles at Lightning. "Thanks." Lightning just watches Hope drinking his warm milk.

"You know, you can talk to me if something's wrong." Lightning says.

"I know that, Clair. But there's nothing wrong." Hope says.

Lightning sighs. "Okay. I'm going back to bed." Lightning grabs her Gunblade and leaves the kitchen, making her way back to her room. Hope finishes his warm milk then returns to the couch. Hope gets real tired from the warm milk, but it doesn't help him fall asleep.

In the morning, Lightning wakes up. She sits up in bed, stretching. Lightning thinks about Hope, waking up in the middle of the night, having trouble falling asleep. She can tell something's wrong, if only she can get it out of him. He's doing well to hide it.

Lightning gets dressed and heads downstairs. She can see Hope's still on the couch, she can't tell if he's asleep cause he's facing at the furniture instead of facing the ceiling or at the distance wall of the living room.

Lightning doesn't better, she just goes into the kitchen and make herself some coffee. While she's waiting for the coffee, she looks at the calendar, to her surprise, it's Mother's Day. Knowing that makes her realize something.

Lightning looks at Hope, he was up last night, on the early time of today. Hope lost his mother in the war and he's now upset that it's Mother's Day. His first one as a motherless child.

The coffee maker dings, but Lightning doesn't pay any attention to it. She walks up to Hope. "Hope?" Hope doesn't do anything at first, but then he turns his head over his shoulder, looking at Lightning. He can tell from her expression that she's concern. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." Hope says, in a depressing tone.

"Okay." Is all Lightning says. She sits by Hope's legs on the couch, still looking at him. "Hey...it's Mother's Day today."

"I know." Hope says, even more depressed.

"You miss her, don't you?" Lightning asks.

Hope doesn't say anything. He moves back to his previous position. Lightning gets off of the couch and kneels beside Hope, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Hope. Talk to me." Lightning says.

Hope doesn't say or do anything. In about five minutes, he gives in. He sits up, facing Lightning. "I miss her, Clair...so much." Hope admits. "I just...I feel so weak just thinking about it. It's Mother's Day today and..."

Lightning puts a hand on Hopes cheek. "It's not weak, Hope. It's okay to miss your mother. Everyone goes through with this and it's hard." Hope doesn't say anything, he just looks down. "I know how it feels, Hope. I go through with this every year on my parents wedding anniversary."

Hope looks at up Lightning hearing that, he can see the sad expression on her face. "Yeah, but..." Hope doesn't say anything.

"What?" Lightning asks.

"I feel like I'm replacing her." Hope says, his voice breaking in sorrow.

Lightning looks surprised hearing that. "What do you mean?"

"It's just that...She's gone, Clair. And there's nothing I can do about it. But then you came into my life. I've relayed everything on you and then...then you took me in. I...I feel like I'm replacing her...with you."

Lightning is speechless hearing that. Hope starts to break down crying. "Hope..." Lighting tilts Hope's chin, just so he's facing her. "You love your mom, don't you?" Hope nods. "You'll never forget her...won't you?" Hope slowly shook his head. "Then you won't replace her."

"It's not like that." Hope says.

"Yes it is." Lightning says. "Hope, your mother knows you'll never replace her. All she ever wants is you to feel safe and happy." Hope doesn't say anything, but Lightning hugs the poor boy. Hope lays his head on her shoulder. "I know I'm not your mother, but I am trying my best." Lightning gives Hope a gentle stroke on his hair. "I would never want to take her place, but I do care for you, Hope."

"I miss her, Clair." Hope whispers in sorrow.

Hearing that makes tears escape from Lightning's eye. "I know." She whispers. "If you want to, you can do something special for her."

"How?" Hope asks.

"I don't know. I'm sure you'll figure it out." Lightning whispers.

Just then, Serah walks down the stairs and walks into the living room. She makes her way to the kitchen, but stops when she sees Lightning and Hope on the couch. She seems concern seeing her sister and her foster-brother hugging and sad.

Serah walks up to them. "You guys okay?"

Lightning looks at Serah. "Yeah. Hope's just upset." Serah looks sadden hearing that. "It's Mother's Day and...well, he misses his mom."

Serah looks at Hope, she sits next to him on the couch. "Hope." Hope and Lightning ends their hug, and Hope looks at Serah. "I know how you feel and what you're going through. It's tough to miss a parent. But you don't have to go through with it alone. Me, Lightning and Snow. We're all here for you."

Hope nods. "I know that, Serah."

Serah smiles a little, then places a hand on Hopes shoulder. "Hey, just because she's dead doesn't mean she'll be gone forever." Hope seems a little confused hearing that. "She'll always send you her love."

"But...how? How will I know...it's hers?" Hope asks.

"You'll know. You'll just have to believe it." Serah says.

"Serah's right." Lightning says. "It can come from anyone, anywhere. If you believe it, you'll know."

Hope takes in their words, then he looks at Lightning and nods. "Okay."

Lightning smiles. "Come on, let's make some breakfast." Serah suggests, getting up from the couch.

So, Hope helps Serah makes some breakfast, just to try and cheer him up. Lightning patiently waits at the table, there, Snow shows up.

"Morning, si-" Lightning aims her Gunblade, in gun form, at Snow.

"Say it! I dare you." Lightning says, not even looking at Snow.

"Uh, uh...Lightning." Snow says, nervously. Lightning laters her weapon, and Snow sighs in relief. Snow sits on the chair across from Lightning.

"Snow. You're probably not aware, but today's Mother's Day." Lightning tells him.

"I know it is." Snow says.

"Okay, but do you know that Hope is upset about it?" Lightning asks.

"Why would he..." Snow stops talking as soon as he realized the answer. "Oh...right."

"Right." Lightning takes a sip of her coffee. "Don't you ever bring up or even mention about this day or about his mother."

Snow raises his hands. "Okay, okay. I get it."

Just then, Serah and Hope walks in with the breakfast, sets everything on the table. Serah sits next to Snow and Hope sits on the one end in between Serah and Lightning. Everyone starts eating, all expect for Hope. He's just looking down at his plate, barely touching his food with his fork.

"Hope?" Hope looks up at Serah. "You're not eating."

"Sorry, I'm just not hungry." Hope says.

"Well, you have to eat something." Lightning says. "You can't let your emotions take over."

Hope nods a little, remembering that time Lightning told him to control his emotions. If he lets doubt take over and despair will cripple him.

Hope decides to eat, he didn't really eat much, just about half of his eggs and only one toast. At that point, everyone else was done. Hope just takes his half-eaten breakfast to the sink. Lightning seems a little disappointed to see all that food going to waste.

"I'm going for some air." Hope says, making his way to the front door.

"Don't wonder too far." Lightning tells him.

Hope leaves the house. Of course by the time he's out, team NORA showed up to help Snow finish up that shed. Hope just walks on the side walk, kept walking and walking. It wasn't far until he leaves New Bodhum and entered that cavern shortcut to Oerba.

While walking around the streets of Oerba, he just kicks an empty tin can as he walks, up until he decided to stop and sit down on the curve. Hope just looks down in depression. The locket Serah gave him caught his attention when it became in his lower view.

Hope holds the locket in front of him, he opens it to view the picture of his mom. He just misses her so much. Mother's Day is going to be nothing more then a scar of his life. Hope looks up to see a flower shop, then tilts his head, wondering.

Back at the house, Lightning is working on the dishes. Her work on the dishes is lacking attention, all she could think about is Hope. She just wish she could help him get through this day.

Serah walks up to Lightning with some dirty plates. She sets them down on the counter. Serah and look at the spaced expression on Lightning's face.

"Lightning?" Lightning seems startled hearing Serah. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Lightning returns her attention to the dishes.

"Thinking about Hope?" Serah asks.

Lightning nods. "I just wish I can help him get through the day."

"Yeah, I do to. I still remember how we were on our parents wedding anniversary." Serah says.

Lightning finishes the dishes then she goes into her room. Back at Oerba, Hope walks into the flower shop. It's a small shop, but it's filled with flowers. Almost like it's Oerba back in it's heyday, only in a much smaller version.

Hope walks around the flower shop until he stops in front of some blue lilies. He just looks at them depressed, they were his mother's favorite and watching them just makes him sad.

As he looks at the flowers, Lightning's words flash into his head. '_If you want to, you can do something special for her._'

"Excuse me." Hope flinches and turns to see it's Aerith from FFVII, who runs the flower shop. "Can I help you?"

"Sorry...I was just looking." Hope says.

"You want to buy some flowers for your mom?" Aerith asks.

Hope looks down, sad. "My mom...she's dead."

Aerith frowns hearing that. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

"I...I do want to do something for her." Hope looks back at the flowers. "Can I get this?" Aerith nods. "Do you...have also have something else?"

Hope leaves the flower shop with the blue lilies, then makes his way back to Lightning's home. By the time he's home, he notices it's about noon. He didn't realize how long he's been gone. Hope noticed loud construction going on just outside of the house. He can tell it's Snow and his gang working on that shed.

Serah walks up to Hope. "Oh, Hope. You're home." Hope nods. Serah looks at the blue lilies in Hope's hands. "Flowers?"

"Yeah...Where's Light?" Hope asks.

"I think she's in her room." Serah says.

"Ok." Hope makes his way up the stairs. Serah just watches Hope making his way. Hope walks down the hallway to Lightning's room. There, he finds her sitting on her bed, reading a book.

"Light?"

Lighting looks up to see it's Hope. "Hope?" Lightning closes the book and sets it down next to her. "What do you need?"

"I..." Hope's a little nervous.

Lightning seems to have noticed the blue lilies Hope's holding. "Flowers? Are those...for me?"

"N-no. They're, uh..." Hope couldn't find the right words.

Lightning waits for Hope to speak, but says nothing for a while. "What?"

Hope takes a deep breath and just says it. "I want to see mom."

Lightning widens her eyes open hearing that. She's surprised. "What? Why?"

"I...It's just. Every year on...Mother's Day, me and dad, we use to give her flowers. Especially these. Blue lilies were her favorite." Lightning nods, understanding. "I just want...to give her these. Put them on her grave. I want to do something special to...to show mom, I..."

Hope couldn't hold in his tears. Lightning smiles, she gets out of bed and walks in front of Hope. She tilts his chin up, making him face her. "I understand. I think it's very sweet you want to carry a family tradition."

Hope slowly nods. "Yeah...that's right. Can you take me to her?"

"Of course. We'll leave right now if you want." Lightning tells Hope.

Hope decided to see his mother right now. When Lightning left her room, Hope stays behind. He does something real quick and then leaves her room, making his way to Lightning's car.

Lightning drives Hope all the way to New Palumpolum. After Cocoon's fall, the Guardian Corps went into the crystalized Cocoon to help citizens who are trapped or find those who have fallen during the Purge. During that time, Lightning and Snow found Hope's mother. After bringing her to Pulse, Hope and Bartholomew were broken to see her lifeless body.

Nora's corpse was taken to the land field that was destined to become New Palumpolum. On the way to New Palumpolum, Hope is really nervous. He's not sure if he has the strength to go through with this.

"You nervous?" Lightning asks.

"Yeah. A little." Hope says.

"You don't have to be. Everything's going to be okay." Lightning tells him.

Hope takes in Lightning's words for a moment, and then nods. "Yeah."

Lightning and Hope arrives at New Palumpolum, and Lightning drives all the way to the cemetery. Hope makes his way across the graveyard, Lightning stays by his side, just to give him some encouragement. It wasn't long until they arrived at Noras grave.

Hope shallows hard, he looks up at Lightning, who's right behind him. Lightning smiles and nods, telling him to go on. With hesitation, Hope takes a deep breath, then he walks up to Noras grave. Hope kneels right in front of it, looking down at the tombstone.

"He-hey mom." Lightning stays behind, watching the boy speak to his mother. "I just want to...to come and say happy Mother's Day. I hope you're all right with what happened. Of course...dad is now in jail but I am...I am now living with Light-I mean, Clair, and her sister and Snow. They've taken good care of me. I think you would really like Clair. I mean...beside her cold bitter attitude she...she's really kind and sweet, a good friend even. She did take me in after dad tried too...you know."

Hope looks down at the flowers. "Anyways, I brought you these." Hope lays the flowers on the grave. "I just want to give you these...like me and dad use to." Hope can feel tears filling in his eyes, trying to escape. "I'll miss you mom...I love you." Hope stands on his feet. "Happy Mother's Day."

Hope looks back to Lightning, barely taking his eyes off the grave. By the time he's in front of Lightning, he looks away from the grave and looks up at Lightning. Lightning slowly warps her arms around Hope, pulling him close to her.

"It's all right. I'm sure she's happy you came." Lightning tells him.

"Yeah." Hope whispers.

Lightning and Hope returns to the car, Lightning drives all the way back to New Bodhum. Hope's still nervous, but it's not about his mother. He left a little gift for Lightning back in her room, wondering and hope it won't be as bad as be thought, Worse case scenario, Lightning would kill him. But at the very least, just wouldn't like it.

Lightning and Hope returns home to find team NORA gone. Snow takes Lightning and Hope out back to see the shed. It's complete, now they just need to move everything from the storage room into the shed.

Snow decided to work on it in the morning, it's near about dinner time and he's tired. Everyone goes back inside, Hope helps Serah make some stir fry and some salad. When dinner was ready, they carry it out onto the dinner room table.

While eating, Lightning tells Snow and Serah what Hope did today. Both of them were surprised to hear that.

"Hope, you really gave your mother those flowers?" Serah asks.

Hope nods. "Yeah."

"Aww, that's so sweet." Serah says.

"Good for you, kid." Snow tells him.

"Hey Serah, if you don't mind me asking, I want to know." Hope says. "Did you and Clair use to do anything for your parents on a special day?"

"We did, but only once when we were older. We use to make them breakfast in bed." Serah says.

"We were gonna do it every year on their wedding anniversary but then...well, you know. They're gone." Lightning finishes.

"I see." Hope says.

Everyone finishes their dinner. Lightning and Hope does the dishes while Serah and Snow are getting all lovey-dovey on the couch. When they were done with the dishes, Lightning goes upstairs into her room. She was about to sit down and read her book, only she's surprised to find something on her bed.

It's a small bouquet of roses, four pinks and three reds and a white. Lightning approaches at the bouquet, she picks it up, just looking at it with slight confusion. Lightning finds a card attach to it. She opens it and reads it.

"_Happy Mother's Day. Thanks for everything. Hope._"

Lightning widens her eyes open, and exhales seeing Hope's name on the card.

"Um..." Lightning is surprised to hear Hope's voice. She sees him by the door. Hope doesn't say anything else, but Lightning had to speak.

"Hope...did you buy me these?" Lightning asks.

"Yes." Hope says. "I just wanted to thank you...for everything. You've done so much for me, I just...I feel like I owe you something. You've always been a good guardian to me I'm glad you are my guardian...Of course, I only wrote Mother's Day cause I thought Guardian's Day would be just weird." Hope nervously chuckles at the end of that sentence.

Hope doesn't say anything else. He just looks down, a little nervous. Lightning sets the roses down on the bed. She walks up to Hope and hugs him, it certainly surprised Hope just like it did back in Palumpolum.

"Thank you, Hope. They're lovely." Lightning whispers.

Hope smiles and returns her hug, wrapping his arms around her waist. "I'm glad you like them."

After the hug, Hope takes a shower while Lightning goes to put the roses in a vase. She really does love them. She sets them by the nightstand in her room. After that, Lightning spends the rest of her night reading a book in bed.

After the shower, Hope goes back into the living room, to find that Serah and Snow are still on the couch. Not only that, but they have also fallen asleep. Hope just looks disappointed. His temporary bed is occupied by the happy couple.

Hope starts to shake Snow. "Hey, Snow!"

Snow mumbles in his sleep, then turns towards Hope. Of course doing that, his hand was loose and it punched Hope right in the face, causing him to fall back. "Ow! What the!"

Hope gets back on his feet, looking at Snow wither angrily. He tries to wake up Serah. "Hey, Serah. Wake up."

Serah puts a hand on Hopes face, pushing him like she's trying to hit the snooze button. "Not now, Clair...Five more minutes." She mutters in her sleep.

Hope just shoves Serahs hand off his face. Hope realizes there's no way he can wake them up. In defeat, he sighs and heads upstairs. He could take the bed Serah and Snow shared, but he would feel uncomfortable doing that. Plus he's afraid of what they're gonna do if they find them on that bed either in the middle of the night or in the morning. So there was only one option left for Hope.

"Clair?" Lightning looks over the book to see Hope by the door. "Can I lay with you?"

"Sure." Hope crawls into bed, laying beside Lightning. "What's wrong? Couldn't sleep."

"No, Serah and Snow took over the couch and...well, kind of fell asleep on it." Lightning just rolls her eyes and sighs hearing that. "When I tried to wake them up, Snow just punched me in the face and Serah was trying to turn me off like I'm some kind of alarm clock."

Lightning was upset to hear what Snow did but then laughed a little hearing what Serah did. "Well, I'll deal with them in the morning. Especially Snow." Lightning says.

Hope just laughs hearing that. "When am I gonna get my own room?" Hope asks.

"Soon hopefully, now that the shed is done." Lightning says, setting her book down at the nightstand.

Lightning turns off the lamp and lays down in bed. Hope turns away from Lightning, facing the wall as he tries to sleep. Lightning turns to face Hope. She slowly wraps his arms around him, leans over his shoulder and kisses him on the cheek.

"Thank you for the roses." She whispers into his ear.

"I am glad you like them. I just hope mom likes the flowers I left her." Hope says.

"I'm sure she does." Lightning says. "Hey, remember what Serah told you, she'll always send you her love. You'll find it if you believe it."

Hope rests his hands on Lightning's hands, which are on his chest. He can feel Lightning's love, but he feels something else. Something he misses dearly, something he's recognized as long as he can remember. Nora's love.

Hope smiles, letting the love from his mother embrace him from Lightning. "I do." He whispers, falling asleep.


	6. Day 6 - Training

Hope had about no trouble sleeping, even on Mother's Day. In the morning, Lightning was the first up, as usual. She does into the kitchen to make herself some coffee. While she's waiting, she sees that Serah and Snow are still laying together on the couch.

Lightning sighs seeing them on the couch. She walks up to them, shoving Snow off the couch with one hand. Falling off the couch causes Snow to wake up, Serah woke up as well.

"Hey, what was that for?" Snow asks.

"For sleeping on the couch." Lightning says. Snow and Serah were confused to hear that, but then suddenly realize they're in the living room instead of their room. "Yeah. Hope had to sleep with me last night."

"Sorry." Serah and Snow said, getting off of the floor and couch.

Lightning returns into the kitchen for her coffee. As she drinks her coffee, Hope walks in, yawning and stretching. "Morning, Clair."

"Morning, Hope." Lightning says. "So, you ready?"

"Ready for what?" Hope asks.

"Training. You asked if I could train you." Lightning says.

"Oh...right." Hope says. "When do we start?"

"We'll leave after breakfast." Lightning says.

"Leave?" Hope asks, confused.

Lightning nods. Serah makes pancakes for everyone. Lightning makes sure that Hope eats a little light, don't wanna fight or train on a full stomach, especially if you get kicked in the stomach.

After breakfast, Lightning and Hope gets in the car and drives off, leaving Serah and Snow alone in the house to handle the inventory in Hope's soon-to-be room. Lightning takes Hope to her workplace, the Guardian Corps base.

Hope's a little worried coming here for some training. Lightning walks in, escorting Hope down the hallway, until she runs into lieutenant Amodar.

"Farron? What are you doing here? I thought you had the week off." Amodar asks.

"I am, lieutenant." Lightning puts a hand on Hope's shoulder. "My friend here wants to train so I brought him here."

"All right, Farron." Amodar says.

Lightning escorts Hope to the training rooms. Of course she makes sure to steer clear of the prison hall, she knows Hope wouldn't want to see his father behind bars.

They arrive at the training room. Hope sees it as a wide open area with targets and dummies hanging front the ceiling or by the walls, and also some work out sessions. One of which Hope notices Tifa from FFVII is there doing some heavy duty on the punching bag.

Tifa delivers a powerful sweep kick, causing the large bag to break. Hope was pretty shocked to see it, his jaw dropping. Tifa sighs and makes her leave. "You might wanna replace that." She tells Lightning and Hope as she passes them.

Lightning and Hope watches Tifa until she's out of sight. "Who was that?" Hope asks.

"No idea." Lightning says. "All right, let's start with some warm ups."

"Why?" Hope asks.

Lightning takes out her Gunblade, holds it out in front of Hope. "Hold this."

Hope grabs hold of the Gunblade, when Lightning lets go of it, it just drops, with Hope long with it. Hope tries to lift the Gunblade, but he can't barely lift an inch of it. Lightning just stands there with her arms crossed, waiting for Hope to get the idea.

After a couple of attempts, Hope gives up and looks up at Lightning. "All right. Warm ups it is."

Lightning nods. She makes Hope start with some pull ups. Hope struggles to lift himself on the bar. Lightning stands by him, counting his pull ups.

"One...two...three...four." Attempting the fifth one, Hope's grip on the bar slips and he falls.

"I don't know how you do this." Hope says.

"I'm highly trained. You are too soft." Lightning tells him. "That's why we're gonna have to toughen you up." Hope gets back on his feet. "Again!"

Hope manages to make fifty pull ups before he gives up on it. Lightning decided he he move onto the sit ups. Hope lays in the middle of the room, his knees high doing the sit ups. Lightnings kneeling in front of him, holding down his feet.

"Twenty-three, twenty-four...twenty-five. Come on! You can do better then that!" Lightning tells him.

After sit ups, Hope moves on to push-ups. That one is pretty struggling since Hope's starting to get exhausted. After thirty-eight push ups, Hope just stops.

"I'm getting tired...Can't we take a break?" Hope asks.

"No. You have to fight the exhaustion." Lightning tells him. "It's how you build stamina, by pushing through your limits."

Hope sighs and continues his push ups. After push ups, Lightning makes Hope run around the room. Lightning keeps track of his time. After about eight laps, she stops his time, but is disappointed. "Five minutes and forty seconds? You can do better then that."

"Lightning." Hope tries to catch his breath. "I know...you're trying to toughen me up...but I'm exhausted. Can't we...take a break?"

"Not yet. Give me another eight laps. Go!"

Hope moans in exhaustion, making the runs. Of course, at his second lap, he started walking, until he walks past Lightning and collapses on his knees. Lightning can see how tired the boy is.

"Perhaps a brief rest can be acceptable." Lightning walks off. "We'll resume in a few minutes."

Hearing that, Hope collapses on the ground in exhaustion. Hope takes his moment to rest. Lightning walks back to him with a bottle of water, tosses it to him. "Drink up."

Hope catches the bottle, rather rusty. Hope drinks about half for the bottle, then stops to catch his breath. "Was your training this tough?"

Lightning sits next to Hope. "Not really, it was way tougher. I was lifting weights, doing sit ups while hanging upside down, running for two miles on a hot day and doing blade combat with the lieutenant." Hope is surprised to hear all that. "The Guardian Corps wouldn't allow women in the ranks, think they wouldn't be tough enough for the army. But I proved them wrong."

"You sure did." Hope says.

Lightning stands up. "All right, break's over. Time for combat drills." Hope stands up as Lightning makes her way to the wall. There, she grabs a Gunblade, a rather small one. She walks back to Hope and tosses it to him. "It's the lightest one we have." Hope grabs it by the hilt, he holds his weapon out, Lightning does the same with her Gunblade, until the two weapons are touching.

"The best way to win a battle is to stay on your toes and on your guard, act as fast as possible. Cause if you don't..." Lightning waves her weapon around, causing Hope to disarm, she quickly low kicks Hope, knocking him off of his feet. "You'll make easy pray."

Hope gets back on his feet. "Got it." Hope goes for his weapon and picks it up.

Lightning nods. "We'll start with your actions." Lightning steps back, standing on her guard. "Come at me."

Hope nods, he makes his stand, his weapon hold up to strike, then charges at Lightning. Hope holds out his weapon, ready to strike. Lightning parries the attack and his next few attacks, then she finally disarms him and sweeps him off of his feet.

"Your skills are rusty. Try again." Lightning tells him.

Hope gets back on his feet, grabbing his weapon. Hope charges at Lightning again. The same actions repeated, only Lightning makes her move sooner then before. Hope tries again, with the charging, but Lightning makes her attack after the first strike.

After the next six trainings, Hope loses from the beginning in every single one. Hope lays on the ground while Lightning stands in front of Hope.

"Hope, do you realize what you're doing?" Lightning asks. Hope shakes his head. "You keep using the same strategy over and over again. You're being too predictable." Hope gets back on his feet. "You can't just relay on one strategy." Lightning readies her weapon to strike. "Stand your guard."

Hope nods, he readies to defend himself, then Lightning charges at him. Lightning strikes him, twice, then the third strike, disarms Hope.

On the second battle, the same thing happens. The third time, Hope was ready to defend himself from that charge and disarm, only instead, Lightning leaps high, flipping over Hope. That certainly surprised him. Lightning lands close to Hope from behind and sweep him off of his feet.

"You see what I did there? Did you expect me to attack you like that?" Lightning asks.

"No, I certainly didn't." Hope says, getting up. "I thought I had you there."

"Exactly. You didn't expect me to attack you like that, which made my victory easy." Lightning says. Lightning defends herself. "Now again!"

Hope charges at Lightning, only instead of striking, he just run past her, it certainly surprised Lightning, she thought he was repeating his charge and strike again.

Lightning turns around, to see Hope can't be found. Lightning looks around the room. "Hope? ...Hope?" What Lightning doesn't know is that Hope is hiding right behind her, and trying to stay behind her as she moves around. "Hope! This isn't a time for playing games! Come on out!"

Hope slowly slides to Lightning's side, trying to not get caught from the corner of her eyes, then at the right moment, he strikes at Lightning's weapon, trying to disarm her but failed. Her grip on the blade is iron, but fragile muscles aren't gonna work that simple.

Lightning makes a quick strike, just in time, Hope docks. Hope strikes a fist at the corner of Lightning's jaw. As if in slow motion, Hope suddenly realizes what he's done while making the blow.

Hope backs up after his strike while Lightning stands motionless in place. "Uh, Lightning! I'm s-sorry!" Hope says, nervously.

Lightning looks at Hope, as quick as lightning, she grabs Hope, twists his body until he lays flat on the floor, with his arm hold behind his back. Lightning sets a foot on Hope's back, holding him down, as she readies her fist to strike at Hope. Hope closes his eyes and grits at his teeth, trying for the pain, but nothing happens.

Instead, Lightning let's him go. "Well done, Hope. But when you had the advantage, you hesitated. And that made you vulnerable." Lightning gives Hope a hand. Hope grabs on to her hand and she helps him stand up.

"Thanks, Clair." Hope says.

"When in battle, there can be no hesitation. All it does is make you vulnerable, and you'll be dead before you know it." Lightning tells him.

"Got it." Hope says with a nod. "Can we take a short break? I'm a little sore from all that falling."

Lightning just laughs and ruffles Hope's hair. "Sure."

Meanwhile, at Lightning's house, Snow and Fang are working on unloading the room and moving everything to the shed. Serah left to go buy a bed for Hope and Snow need some help. Of course he would have asked Fang even if Serah was here since some of the stuff requires some muscle or extra muscle and Serah...well, Serah's not real strong. Not as Lightning at least.

Fang walks up to an old desk. "You want this in the shed too?"

Snow looks at the desk. "Nah. I think Hope might make use of that. Maybe when he's doing homework from school or something."

"Good thinking." Fang says.

Serah drives up to the driveway of the house, with a mattress tied to the roof. Snow looks out the window to see his fiancé. Serah gets out of the car, she looks up at the open window and waved at Snow.

"Hey!" She shouts at him.

"Hey!" Snow shouts back.

Snow leaves the room and goes outside to hug Serah, and then help her bring the bed inside.

Back at the Guardian Corps, training room, Hope falls back from great force from shooting with his Gunblade. Lightning looks down at Hope and helps him up.

"You must stand your ground." Lightning says. "You can't be light on your feet when shooting. You've gotta try to be unmoveable, like you're rooted to the ground."

Hope nods. "Got it." Hope makes his stand, aiming the Gunblade at the target. He shoots, staggers back a little.

Hope gets his balance back after a moment. "Better, but still needs work." Lightning says.

"Okay." Hope says.

Hope spends the next few minutes practicing his shooting. Of course his standing his ground is still needing work. Next, Hope does the mopping on the ground. Lightning watches Hope has he does the work.

Hope stands next to lightning when he's finished. "Done..."

Lightning nods. "Excellent."

"What does mopping the floors have to do with training?" Hope asks.

"It doesn't." Hope widens his eyes open hearing that. "I'm suppose to mop the floor when I got back from my break."

"Oh man!" Hope says, dropping the mop and walking off.

"All right Mr. Soup puss. Come on." Lightning walks to the center of the room. "Time for actual combat training.

Hope grabs his Gunblade and walks up to Lightning. They stand in front of each other, in the center of the room. "Let's see what you've learned. Remember, I'm not gonna go easy on you...Actually, I am, since if I'm not, I'm gonna kill you, or at least have you end up in the hospital." Hope shallows hard hearing that. "What I mean is, I'm gonna go easy on you, but I'm gonna do it hard."

Hope nods. "O-okay."

Lightning takes out her Gunblade and makes her stance, Hope makes his stance, then they fight. Lightning makes the first strike, Hope parries every attack Lightning throws at him. Hope strikes back after five of each Lightning's attacks.

Lightning does a sweep low kick, Hope jumps, avoiding her attack. Hope strikes at Lightning several times, Lightning dodges the first three, then on the fourth one, she jump flies over Hope. Hope kept his eyes on Lightning. When she lands close behind him, Hope jumps backwards, away from Lightning, avoiding her elbow jab strike.

Lightning charges at Hope, striking him. Hope parries her attacks, with each parry, he starts to stagger bit by bit. But then, Lightning strikes, and Hope does the same. They stand in place, their weapons clashing with each other. Hope makes the move, slowly disarming Lightning.

Lightning was surprised to see her weapon fly out of her hands. While he's a bit distracted, Hope sweep kicks, as hard as he could. His strike wasn't much like Lightning's, since she has stronger legs and his is a bit average.

The strike causes Lightning to lose her balance a little, she fails to regain it and falls back, then Hope stands in front of Lightning, with his Gunblade pointed at her, right on the tip of her nose. Now it's like the whole Lightning and Bartholomew fight is repeating again, only instead, it's Hope and he has the advantage.

Lightning smiles, she moves his Gunblade out of the way and stands up. "You did well." Hope smiles hear that. "I wouldn't get too cocky about it. You still have a lot of training to do for a real fight."

Hope nods. "Okay."

"That'll it be for the day. Let's head home."

Lightning and Hope leaves the training room. When they got out, they noticed how late it's getting, the sun is already setting. "Wow. It's that late?"

"I thought it's about three in the afternoon." Lightning says. They got into the car and Lightning drives back to her house.

Lightning and Hope enters the house, of course Lightning is surprised to see Fang coming down the stairs with one of the storage boxes.

"Fang? What are you doing here?" Lightning asks.

"Your cheeky boy asked me to come to help out emptying out the room." Fang answers.

Fang heads for the outside to the shed. Lightning and Hope makes their way upstairs, to the room. There, they see it's about half empty. Nothing but piles of boxes, an old desk and dresser, and the mattress Serah bought that's leaning against the wall.

"Hey, you two are back all ready?" Snow asks.

Lightning and Hope sees Snow walking down the hallway, carrying the bed frames for Hope's bed. "Yeah. Where's Serah?"

"Working on dinner." Snow says, walking in. "How about a little hand while we wait?"

Lightning has some energy left to help out Snow, but she looks at Hope for an answer. "I want to help, but I'm exhausted."

Lightning nods. "You deserve the rest." Hope goes to lay on the couch while Lightning helps Snow and Fang with the unloading.

Serah works on dinner, making some meatloaf. She was about to ask Hope if he wants to help cook, but noticed how exhausted he is when he crashed on the couch, she cancelled her request.

By the time Lightning, Snow and Fang were done, The room had only a corner of inventory left, not including the bed, bed frames, dresser and desk.

They all walk downstairs and enter the dinning room. "Whew. I'm hungry." Snow says, putting his hands on his stomach. "I wonder what Serah's cooking." Serah enters the dinning room, setting the meatloaf on the table. "All right!"

Everyone sits on the table. Hope was the last one to join, since he was resting a bit.

Lightning tells everyone what happened with her and Hope at the Guardian Corps training room. Fang just laughs, assuming it was a joke. Fang usually sees Hope was a little wimp. He would have no shoot at taking out Lightning.

Snow was pretty amazed and Serah congratulated Hope.

"Wait, you're serious?" Fang asks, facing Lightning. "You got your butt whipped...by a little kid!"

"Oh shut up, Fang. I only went easy on him." Lightning says.

"While fighting hard." Hope adds.

"Yeah. Easy-hard as I call it." Snow says. "Lightning did it to me once, and I ended up in the hospital."

"Um...sweetie...She was doing her hardest." Serah says.

"Aw man!" Snow says in disappointment.

"Just feel lucky I didn't kill you." Lightning points out.

After dinner, Fang goes home to Oerba, Hope falls asleep on the couch, Serah and Snow went into their room for some alone time. Leaving Lightning alone to clean up the mess from the table.

After that, Lightning goes into her room. It's been a long day of training and also emptying out a room, so she decided to get some sleep for the night.


	7. Day 7 - Sickness

Next morning, Lightning wakes up a little late. Lightning looked at the clock and noticed what time it is. "7:30? Damn." Lightning sits up from her bed, she shifts her legs to the side and stretches her arms in the air.

Lightning gets dressed and heads down the stairs. She arrives at the living room to find Hope missing. He's not laying on the couch, when she goes into the kitchen, it's empty too. Lightning starts to worry, until she hears a strange sound. She can hardly make out what the sound is or who or what it's coming from.

Lightning follows the sound, the closer she gets, the more she can make it what it is. It almost sounds like...vomiting. Lightning follows the sound into the hallway, it's coming from behind the door to the bathroom.

Lightning puts an ear on the door, it's defiantly coming from back there. She widens her eyes open realizing who it is: Hope. He's throwing up in the bathroom, but why she wonders.

"Hope?" Lightning knocks on the door. "Hope? Are you okay?" For an answer, all Lightning got is another wave of vomit sounds. After a minute, she can't take it anymore. Lightning opens the door and looks inside. There is Hope, his face in the toilet vomiting.

Lightning sighs looking at him. She walks up to him, kneels down and rubs his back, trying to ease his vomiting. After another minute, Hope's vomiting stop, but he does nothing but face the toilet with deep, gaspful breaths.

Hope finally turns to look at Lightning. "C...Clair?" Hope's voice is weak and rusty.

Lightning just feels bad for Hope. "You okay?"

"No. I..." Hope enters a coughing fit. Lightning just waits for him to stop, but starts to worry after a minute of endless coughs.

Lightning gives Hope a gentle pat on the back, kept giving it to him after he finally stops. "Try not to talk." Lightning tells him. "You should save your strength."

Hope lips 'ok' at Lightning. Lightning stands up. She moves to the sink and opens the medicine cabinet behind the mirror, She takes out a thermometer. She kneels back in front of Hope. "Open." Hope mouths his mouth. She sticks the thermometer under his tongue. "Keep it in there. Okay, tell me where else hurts. Blink twice if I'm at the right areas."

Lightning moves her hand on Hope's body, feeling him. She starts with his forehead, he blinks twice. She's surprised to feel how hot he is. Lightning moves her hand down to his nose, he blinks twice. Lightning moves all the way to his throat, blinks. Down to his chest, blinks. His stomach, blinks.

"Oh man, You've got it bad, don't you?" Lightning asks. Hope nods a little. The thermometer beeps, and Lightning takes it out of his mouth to read what it says. She's surprised at the results. "109. Oh man."

Hope coughs. Lightning puts the thermometer away. "Come on, let's get you into bed."

Lightning moves her arms around Hope, one on his back and one under his legs, and lifts him. Hope just lays his head on Lightning's shoulder, taking deep breaths. He's just having trouble getting oxygen into his lungs. Lightning takes Hope up the stairs, Hope looks confused realizing she's talking him upstairs.

"Clair..." Hope's call was barely heard, but Lightning still heard him.

"No talking, Hope. Remember?" Lightning tells him. Lightning is up the stairs and walking down to hallway. "I don't think it's a good idea for you to lay on the couch. You're going into my room." Lightning enters into her room. "My bed's more comfortable then the couch."

Luckily, today, Lightning didn't bother to make her bed, so her sheets were still open for Hope to lay in. Lightning lays Hope on her bed, she grabs the cover and lays it over his body. Lightning moves to her pillows, fluffing them, trying to make them comfortable for him.

"There." Lightning looks at Hope. "Comfortable?" Hope nods, then he coughs some more. Lightning gently strokes his hair once he's done coughing. "Okay, you just rest here. I'll be back in a minute."

Hope slowly nods, understanding. Lightning leaves her room and goes back down the stairs to the kitchen. Lightning figured she should start by making some tea, so she turns the stove that the kettle is on. While she waits for the water to boil, she search around the medicine cabinets for anything to help Hope.

Lightning finds some pain pills for his chest and headache and some medical ointment that can help his congestion. Lightning grabs a bowl and heads for the sink, filling it with water. While doing that, Serah and Snow walks in.

"Hey, sis." They both said together.

Lightning looks up at Serah. "Hey, Serah." Then turns to Snow with a glare. "I'm not your sister!"

"What'ch doing?" Snow asks.

"Yeah, and where's Hope?" Serah asks.

When the bowl was filled, Lightning turns off the sink. "He's sick. He's got it real bad. A 109."

Serah gasps hearing that and Snow looks worried. "He's sick?"

"Poor kid." Serah says.

"Yeah." Lightning takes out a small rag. "I got him in my room." Lightning reaches one of the cabinets for a glass cup, then she fills it with water. Lightning can hear the water boiling up, she opens the cabinet by the fridge. She takes out a mint teabag and some honey. By the time the kettle was whistling, Lightning starts to make the tea.

When it was all done, Lightning places everything on a tray and carries it all up the stairs. Lightning makes her way back into her room, where she finds Hope still in bed. She noticed he looks a little uncomfortable. Lightning sets the tray on the nightstand and looks at him.

"What's wrong?" Lightning asks.

Hope doesn't say anything, he couldn't anyways since Lightning told him not to talk. Hope's struggling to keep his mouth closed, and he's looking a little green. Widening her eyes open, Lightning realized what's happening.

Lightning rushes out of her room for the closet down the hall. She quickly grabs a bucket and runs back in. Just in time too, cause Hope unleashes his vomit the very moment Lightning was by him.

Hope only vomits for about a minute, and when he's done, he gives three sharp coughs. He lays back on the bed, shaking a little.

Lightning sets the bucket down. "I'm sorry you're like this, Hope."

Hope shook his head slowly, Lightning can tell he means she shouldn't apologize. Lightning grabs the pills from the tray. "Here, these should help with your chest pain and headache." Lightning puts the pills into Hopes mouth. "Don't shallow just yet." Lightning grabs the glass of water. "Drink some water with the pills."

Hope nods. He accepts the glass of water and starts drinking. He shallows the piles with the water. Halfway through the glass, he stops drinking. "No, keep drinking." Lightning tells him. "You need to stay hydrated. Especially after all that vomiting."

Hope drinks the rest of the water. Lightning grabs the ointment on the tray. "This should help with your congestion."

Lightning digs her fingers into the ointment, grabbing some. Touching the stuff makes her fingers feel like they're on fire. She tries hard to cover her expression so Hope isn't worried or startled. Lightning moves her hand under Hope's shirt and rubs some of it on his chest.

Hope couldn't help but wince and moan painfully. The ointment feels like his chest is burning. It's bad enough he has chest pain, now he's having chest burn. Lightning gets some more ointment, she was about to rub some on his neck, but Hope grabs her wrist, trying to stop her.

Hope gives Lightning a pleading look in his eyes. Lightning couldn't help but frown a little. "I know, I don't like this stuff either, but trust me, it works like a charm."

Hope lets go of Lightnings wrist, and Lightning rubs the ointment on his neck and a little bit on his nose. He didn't like it, but he just goes through it. Lightning was done and she sets the jar on the tray. Lightning grabs the rag, dips it in the bowl and she lays it on his forehead.

"This should bring your temperature down." Lightning says.

Lightning waits for a few minutes, by then, his breathing starts to settle down. After that, she grabs the tea. "This should help with your stomach and your sore throat."

Hope nods, accepting the tea. Lightning watches Hope as he drinks the tea. When he was done, Lightning takes the cup. "Okay. There's a TV here if you want to watch something." Lightning reaches into her pouch, taking out an object, it's just a small remote that has only one button. Lightning hands it to Hope. "I have a pager with me. If you need anything, just call me."

Hope nods, understanding. "All right." Lightning gently strokes Hopes hair. "You just rest. I'll come check on you later."

Lightning leaves her room, leaving Hope alone. Lightning goes into the kitchen, she made herself some coffee, while waiting, Serah had breakfast ready for Lightning. Lightning eats her breakfast. Halfway through it, her coffee was ready and Lightning went to pour herself a cup.

After breakfast, Lightning goes to check on Hope. She only finds him soundlessly asleep. Even his breathing is slow and steady. Lightning couldn't help but smile, under all that ill suffering, he's looks so peaceful.

In the late afternoon, Hope's still asleep, Lightning started working on Hope's room. She and Snow finishes removing the inventory. All that was left is the dresser, the desk, a nightstand and the mattress. Lightning begins moving all of Hope's packages into the room while Snow is working on putting together the bed frame.

While Lightning was about to carry up the next package, she hears something from the outside. Lightning sticks her head out the door, to find Firion from FFII digging through her rose bushes.

"Hey!" Lightning yells at him.

Firion looks up at Lightning. "Do you have any wild roses!"

For an answer, Lightning takes out her gunblade, in gun mode, and aims it was Firion. "Get out of here!" Lightning starts shooting, while Firion makes a run for it. Lightning watches him leave while putting away her weapon. "Crazy man..."

Lightning closes the door and turns to find Serah behind her. "Who was it?" Serah asks.

"Just that crazy man digging through our rose bushes." Lightning says. Lightning's pager goes off. She quickly runs up the stairs and goes to check on Hope.

"You called?" Lightning looks at Hope, he seems to be shivering. Lightning walks up to him, putting a hand on his cheek. "You cold?" Hope nods.

Lightning leaves the room, making Hope worry, then she returns with that Megistotherian blanket Fang gave Hope for his birthday. Hope seems both confused and weird seeing it.

"Fang said it'll keep you warm. I think you should use it." Lightning removes the sheet and replaces it with the fur blanket. To Hope's surprise, it's really soft and warm. In about a minute, his shivering dies. "That better?"

Hope nods. Just then, Serah walks in with a bowl, and hands it to Lightning. "Here's some soup." She says.

"Thanks." Serah leaves the room. Lightning sits by Hope. "Serah made you some soup." Hope just shook his head, then he puts a hand on his stomach. "Come on, you need to eat something. You're not going to feel any better just by eating nothing all day."

Hope understands, Lightning feeds Hope the soup, bit by bit. In about fifteen minutes, Hope finishes the soup. Lightning notices Hope is starting to feel hot, sweating even. Lightning stands up, making her way to the window. "Let's get some fresh air in here."

The wind blows in through the window, cooling up the air a bit. "Okay, I'm gonna go. Call me if you need anything."

By the time Lightning was out the door, Hope calls for her. "Clair..."

His voice was loud enough for her to hear, even under all that hoarse, Lightning still heard him. She walks back into the room, by Hopes side. "What do you need?"

Hope grabs Lightnings wrist, and slowly puts a hand on top of hers. "Please. Stay." Hope says.

Lightning slowly nods. "Okay." Lightning helps Hope scooch over so she could lay next to him. Lightning positions herself, so Hope is laying his head on her shoulder. Hope looks at Lightning, and shook his head. "What?"

Hope points at Lightning. "S-s...sick."

"Don't worry about me. I have a strong immune system." Lightning tells him. Hope nods, understanding. Just then, Hope clutches at his stomach, wincing in pain.

Lightning can tell he's hurting. She moves her hand to his stomach, gently rubbing soothing circles on it. "Shh, it's okay. Relax." Lightning whispers to Hope. "It's okay. You'll feel better." Hope nods, slowly this time. In a minute, Hope's stomach starts to settle, the rubbing sure did help ease the pain. "Hey, you wanna watch a movie?"

Hope nods. Lightning turns on the TV, flipping through channels until she finds an opera movie. Lightning isn't too crazy for it, but Hope seems to enjoy it. About halfway through the movie, Hope falls asleep. Lightning was about to turn the TV off, or at least find something more interesting, but then she started to find it interesting and decided to watch the rest of it.

After the movie, Serah called Lightning for dinner. Hope is still asleep, so she hopes he wouldn't noticed her gone for a while. Lightning leaves her room for dinner, of course she had to wash her hands first, just in case of germs (Who wouldn't after nursing a sick boy?)

Serah, Snow and Lightning are at the dinning table, eating the Behemoth stew Serah had made. "How's Hope been doing?"

"Better then he was when I found him this morning." Lightning says.

"You think he'll be okay?" Snow asks.

"Of course. He's tough." Lightning says.

"Is he going to be well enough for the wedding tomorrow?" Serah asks.

"I honestly don't know." Lightning says. "We can only hope that he'll be well by tomorrow."

Right after dinner, Lightning returns into her room. She can see that Hope's awake, looking sad. Lightning can tell why he's upset. She sighs and stands beside the bed.

"Sorry I had to leave, it was just for dinner." Lightning kneels down at Hope. "You feeling any better?" Hope slowly shook his head. Lightning sighs. She stands up and removes the fur blanket. "Let's get you into the shower." Lightning lifts Hope and carries him to the bathroom. "A nice, hot shower should do you some good."

When Lightning was in front of the bathroom, she calls for Serah. "Serah!" Serah runs up the stairs and into the hallway where Lightning's at. "Can you replace my bed sheets?" Serah nods and goes into Lightning's room.

Lightning takes Hope into the bathroom, only instead of leaving, she helps him get undressed. Lightning knows that Hope is too sick and weak to handle taking a shower alone. Lightning gets Hope into the shower, starting up the water and switching the drain to the shower sprayer.

Lightning starts washing down Hope's body with a bit of water and the bar of soap. Hope couldn't help but feel embarrassed, even more then he ever did in his entire life. Only once has a girl ever gave him a bath, it was his mother and he was in his toddler years. But instead, he's 15 and it's his guardian and dear friend instead of his mother.

When done with Hope's body, Lightning grabs some shampoo, squirts some on her hands, rubs her hands together and starts washing Hope's hair, digging her fingers into his silver hair.

Lightning can tell Hope feels embarrassed about all this happening. She can relate to that kind of feeling, she doesn't feel too pleased doing this for Hope. She's close with him, but not THAT close. Could be worse, she could be naked too.

After showering, Lightning gets Hope out of the shower, she just lets him sit on the floor, then walks away to the other side of the bathroom. She can at least give him some privacy when drying and getting dressed. After Hope was dried and dressed, Lightning carries him out of the bathroom. She just stands out of the door, closing it and looking at Hope.

"That never happened." Lightning says.

"Agreed." Hope says weakly.

Lightning carries Hope back into the room. She lays him back in her bed. "All right, I'm gonna take a shower too." Lightning lays the new cover over Hope's body. "You just rest up." Lightning grabs some pajamas from her dresser then returns to the bathroom.

Hope lays on the bed, waiting for Lightning as she takes her shower. All he could think about was what happened just five minutes ago. He actually cannot believe Lightning did that. It's got to be the most embarrassing moment in his life.

In about ten minutes, Lightning returns from the shower, she just walks in drying off her hair. After drying off, Lightning gets into bed, laying next to Hope.

"You feeling any better?" Lightning asks.

"Little..." Hope says in his hoarse voice.

"I told you, no talking." Lightning says. Hope gives a sorry look. Lightning reaches for her book: War and Peace. Hope gives Lightning a look of curious and confusion. "I'm just gonna read a book...Do you want me to read it to you?"

Hope nods. Lightning was about to read the book, but suddenly stops when Hope taps her shoulder. Lightning looks at Hope, she can see he's putting a hand on his chest, then on Lightning's. Putting the pieces together, she can tell what he's saying.

Lightning couldn't help but smile. She wraps an arm around Hope, pulling him close. "I love you too, Hope." Lightning kisses Hope on the cheek, he couldn't help but blush.

Afterwards, Lightning starts to read the book to Hope. Hope just smiles while listening to Lightning. After about thirty minutes of reading, Hope falls asleep. Lightning checks on Hope to see he's fallen asleep. She chuckles at the sleeping boy. Lightning sets the book by the nightstand and turns of the lamp, getting a good night sleep.


	8. Day 8 - The Wedding

Lightning wakes up early in the morning, to find herself very warm. Nothing bad, just feeling good and fuzzy. She looks at Hope, who's laying his head on her chest. His breathing is slow and steady, just fine. Lightning's hoping that he's feel better now.

Very soon, Hope wakes up. Lightning went to get the thermometer to use it on Hope. After waiting, it beeps and Lightning checks on the results.

"99.3." Hope is disappointed to hear that.

"I'm still sick?" Hope asks. His voice is back to normal now, but still a little stiff.

"Maybe." Lightning says. She puts a hand on Hope's forehead. "You don't feel hot, just a little warm."

"Am I gonna miss the wedding?" Hope asks.

"I don't know...how you feeling?" Lightning asks.

"Well, I'm still tired, my throat's just a little scratchy, and my stomach's feeling a bit upset." Hope points out.

Lightning nods. "Okay, I think it could just be a little bug. How about this:" Lightning helps Hope lay back down in the bed, and place the covers back over his body. "You just take it easy today, get plenty of rest, and if you're feeling well by this afternoon, you should be able to make it to the wedding." Hope nods, then Lightning puts a hand on his stomach. "You hungry?"

"Just a little." Hope answers.

"All right. We can wait for Serah to wake up. I'm gonna make you some tea, would that be okay?"

"Sounds good." Hope says.

Lightning smiles, she makes her way to the kitchen. She turns on the stove with the kettle on it, and then starts up the coffee machine. When the coffee machine was done, Lightning pours herself a cup, and then gets to work on the tea.

While making the tea, Serah shows up. "Morning, sis."

Lightning smiles at Serah. "Morning Serah."

Serah notices Lightning making the tea. "Is Hope still sick?"

"Just a little." Lightning says.

"Is he gonna miss the wedding?" Serah asks.

"I don't think so, I'm making him taking it easy today. Hopefully, he'll feel better by this afternoon." Lightning finishes the tea, she makes her way to the upstairs, but stops by the kitchen door. "You think you can make him some soup?"

"Sure." Serah says.

Lightning returns to her room. She hands Hope his tea, Lightning stands by watching the boy drink his tea. "Serah's gonna make you some soup." Hope nods. When he finishes his tea, Lightning takes the cup. "Okay, you just rest up. Serah should be here soon with the soup." Lightning gives Hope a kiss on the cheek. "Feel better, Hope."

Lightning leaves her room. She returns to the kitchen, drinks her coffee and have some the soup Serah made for breakfast. Serah brings a bowl of soup to Hope. Serah stays by him as he eats some of the soup.

When he was almost finished, Hope starts to get very sleepy, probably still tired from just waking up. Lightning finished her breakfast and decided to go check on Hope. She stands by the door of her room to see Serah is with him. When Hope was finished, he lays back down in bed, Serah lays the cover up to his shoulders and tucks him in.

Lightning just smiles seeing Serah and Hope. When Serah was done tucking Hope in, she looks at his sleeping face. He looks so adorable. Serah giggles a little as she strokes Hopes hair, then gives him a kiss on the cheek.

After all that, Serah walks up to Lightning and they walk down the hallway. "He's just so adorable." Serah says.

"He's a lucky kid." Lightning says. "Hey, where's Snow?"

"He's getting ready for the wedding. He left really early and moved in with the NORA gang for the day." Serah says. "That reminds me. I better get ready."

Lightning just watches Serah go into her room, then she moves into Hope's room. The bed still needs some work and most of his packages are still in the living room. Lightning finishes the bed and moves the rest of the boxes into the room. By then, it's about one PM.

Lightning is surprised to see the time, the wedding's in three hours. She and Hope, possibly, should be getting ready and hit the road to get to Healin.

Serah's already gone, and Lightning goes to check on Hope, who's already awake. "How are you feeling?" Lightning asks.

"I feel good, great even." Hope answers.

Lightning feels Hopes forehead. "Your temperature's normal. I think you can make it to the wedding. Speaking of which, we better get ready." Hope nods, then gets out of bed. "Hey, before you get dressed, come."

Lighting escorts Hope down the hall, into his new room. Hope is surprised to see his room. Right now, it's just an old dresser, desk, bed with a nightstand and one corner of the room is pilled with his packages.

"It's not much, the dresser and desk are a little old, but it'll have to do." Lightning tells him.

Hope looks back at Lightning and smiles. "It's perfect." Hope wraps his arms around Lightning, giving her a hug. Lightning was startled from the hug, it came out of no where. "Thank you."

Lightning smiles and hugs the boy back. "You're welcome." Lightning and Hope ends their hug. "Now, let's get ready."

Lightning goes into her room and starts to get dressed. Hope takes out his tuxedo, he just looks at it. He wouldn't enjoy wearing it, but then he suddenly remembered what Lightning told him when they were running the errands.

Hope goes to the medicine cabinet in the kitchen, where he finds some baby powder. Hope returns into his room, Hope undresses and spreads the baby powder all over him, then he puts on the tuxedo. Lightning is right, that did help prevent the itching, but the day is still young.

In about half an hour, Hope is dressed and well groomed. He looks about eighteen years old. He now waits by the door for Lightning. Even through she's a girl, Hope is surprised that she's taking a long time. Normally, Hope wouldn't think Lightning's one of those girls that would take forever to get ready, cause they would spent hours getting dressed, putting on make-up and so on.

"I'm ready." Lightning says, as she walks down the stairs.

Hope looks at Lightning as soon as she comes in sight. Hope is completely stunned at the sight of Lightning. She looks completely stunning in that dress, with her hair silky smooth, her red rose lips, and a rose corsage on her right wrist.

Hope's jaw just dropped. Lightning slowly shook her head, she closes his mouth then snaps her fingers in his face, snapping him out of his trance. "You're staring."

"S-sorry." Hope says, embarrassed. "I was caught off guard...by your beauty."

Lightning chuckles and smiles. "Well, you look very handsome as well."

Hope blushes. "Really? Thanks." Lightning makes her way to the door. Hope is surprised to see Lightning is wearing her boots. "You're going to the wedding in those?"

Lightning looks back at Hope, noticing he's pointing at her boots. "I'm gonna wear the heels when we get to the wedding. Those things kill my feet."

Lightning and Hope gets into the car, Lightning drives all the way to Healin. When they arrive, the wedding starts in about an hour. When they arrive, Lightning switches from her boots to the high heels.

She and Hope gets out of the car, only after a few steps, Lightning falls forward. Luckily, Hope was there to catch her.

"Whoa! I gotcha." Hope says.

"Thanks. I don't understand how people can stand walking in these!" Lightning says.

Hope and Lightning walks, Hope just supports as Lightning's crutch. "Well, maybe you just have to get use to it."

Hope helps Lightning getting use to the walking in heels. In about half an hour, she was doing fine. Lightning and Hope meets up with Sazh, Fang and Vanille at the Cathedral. Fang is wearing a simple black strapless dress. Vanille is wearing a pink sleeveless dress, that covers her shoulders. Sazh is just wearing light blue dress pants and jacket.

"Hope, you're looking very handsome." Vanille says.

"Uh...thanks. So I'm told." Hope says.

Vanille giggles. Sazh walks up to Lightning. "Well, looks like soldier girl here dolled up."

Lightning looks at Sazh, from head and toe. "You're really wearing that?"

Hope and Vanille laughs at Lightning's comment, Sazh seems offended, then Fang rests her elbow on Sazh's shoulder. "I said the same thing when we got here."

Everyone gets ready for the wedding, takes their seats. Lightning stands on one side of the alter as the Bridesmaid, Gadot sides on the other side with Snow as the best man. Snow couldn't help but notice how lovely Lightning looks. He rarely see Lightning all beautified, being a soldier girl and all.

Hope stands by, holding the wedding rings. The wedding is about to start very soon. Snow is a little nervous, he takes a deep breath as "The Wedding March" plays.

Vanille skips down the isle, releasing the flowers. (Yeah, Vanille's the flower girl. Why not?) At the end of the aisle, Vanille stands next to Hope, then Serah starts walking down the isle, in her beautiful wedding dress holding the bouquet.

When Serah reaches the end of the isle, she looks at her sister. Serah smiles, she's happy that Lightning dresses nicely...for once.

Serah stands on the alter, facing Snow, then the minister starts.

"Friends. Family. We are gathered here together for the marriage of Snow Villier and Serah Farron in Holy Matrimony."

The minister goes on with his speech. Lightning and Hope are hoping this would get on with it. For Lightning, it's cause standing in place in heels are killing her feet. For Hope, who can really say?

Finally, they get the marriage part. "Do you, Snow, take Serah Farron as your lovely wedded wife, and you will love and cherish her as long as you shall live?"

"I do." Snow says

"Do you, Serah, take Snow Villiers as your lovely wedded husband, and you will love and cherish him as long as you shall live?"

"I do." Serah says with a smile.

Hope walks up to the alter and offers the rings. Snow puts his ring on Serahs hand, and Serah puts hers on Snows hand. "Then by the power vested in my. I pronoun you man and wife. You may kiss the bribe."

Everyone claps as Snow and Serah kisses, even Lightning, but just a little slower then everyone else. She's happy for Serah, but still not real fond with Snow.

Snow and Serah walks down at the aisle, then Lightning and Gadot, the Hope and Vanille. Vanille's walk is more like skipping.

Everyone gathers in the dinning hall, there Lightning meets up with Snow and Serah. Lightning and Serah hugs, and Lightning whispers into Serah's hear.

"I'm happy for you. Congratulations."

"Thank you." Serah whispers. "Thanks for dressing up nicely."

"Tch. Not like I had a choice Didn't want you two making me miserable." Lightning whispers.

After the hug, sera giggles. "I didn't really mean it. I just said it to get you to do it."

Lightning raises her eyebrows, shocked to hear that. She's been played by her own sister. Lightning faces Snow. "Now, you better take care of my sister."

"I swear, I'll make her happy." Snow says.

Lightning smiles, believing him, then they hug it out. Of course it only lasted two seconds. Snow only did it cause he didn't want to argue with Lightning. Everyone gathers at the table, having some food from the reception.

Before dinning, Serah and Hope make their wedding vows. From Snow's vow, Lightning seems surprised. After the vows, everyone eats. Soon after eating, everyone clears up the tables (Moving them aside) and starts dancing. Few people who aren't dancing, including Lightning and Hope, just sits by and watches the crowd.

Lightning kept her attention for Serah and Snow. Hope...he just looks at everyone else. Hope notices Vanille alone on the dance floor. Vanille looks directly at Hope and smiles. Hope feels a little awkward from Vanille's smile.

Vanille walks up to the table Lightning and Hope are sitting in. Vanille approaches to Hope.

"Hey, you wanna dance?" Vanille asks him. Hope doesn't say anything, he seems surprised, speechless even. "Oh, I see. You'll only dance with someone you'll like."

"Uh...I-"

Vanille puts a finger on Hopes lips, shushing him. "Look into my eyes." Vanille widens her eyes, staring close into Hopes face. Hope seems a bit worried out about this. Lightning just smirks from all this. "You're-going-to-like-me. You're-going-to-like-me." Vanille backs up. "Well?"

"I-I can't dance." Hope says, feeling ashamed.

Vanille just giggles. "Don't let that get you down." Vanille grabs Hopes hand and drags him to the dance floor. "Come on! I can't be alone on the dance floor!"

"Wha-Vanille!"

Lightning smirks, gives a single chuckle, then she takes out a video camera. "This outta be good." Lightning focus the camera on Vanille and Hope.

Vanille drags Hope into the middle of the room. They stand in the middle of the room as everyone does the waltz. Vanille stands in front of Hope, she grabs his hands, putting one of her hip and holding on to the other, then she moves her free hand onto Hope's shoulder.

Hope couldn't help but blush at this whole thing. Vanille and Hope begins to do the waltz, for Hope, his is rather...what's the word? Sloppy. Already, after ten seconds of dancing, Hope steps on Vanilles foot.

"Ow." Vanille says in a silly tone. "Silly-willy, you stepped on my foot."

"Sorry." Hope says.

Hope leaves the dance floor, but Vanille grabs him and pulls him back. "Come on! You can't just leave."

Vanille makes Hope return to the position they were and they continue waltzing. Lightning just chuckles at how silly Hope and Vanille look, mostly Hope. After stepping on Vanilles feet three more times, Hope tries to leave, but Vanille pulls him back in.

In the middle of the waltz, Vanille and Hope bumps into Squall and Rinoa from FFVIII. "Hey, watch it!" Squall tells them.

"Don't be so hard on them. They're only children." Rnioa says sweetly.

"S-sorry." Hope tells them.

After about five minutes, Hope finally breaks free from the waltz, and returns to Lightning's table. "Glad that's finally over."

Lightning smirks as she looks at the video camera. "Glad I recorded the whole thing."

Hope is surprised to hear that and looks at Lightning. "You...you what?" Lightning shows Hope the video, he blushes and groans in disappointment. "Clair, why would you do that?"

"Cause you looked pretty silly." Lightning says.

"Come on, it was very embarrassing." Hope says.

"I think I'll show this to everyone else." Lightning says, putting away the camera.

So far, this night is going terrible for Hope. The only bright side of all this is that the tuxedo didn't give him a rash.

Later at night, the wedding enters the final dance for the night, a slow dance. Serah and Snow are the first to start it, then one-by-one every other couple joins in. The only ones who aren't on the floor are Sazh, Fang, Vanille, Lightning and Hope.

Lightning and Hope just sits on their table as everyone else slow dances. Lightning has her eyes set on Serah and Snow. Hope notices Lightning's blank expression, and her eyes locked onto them.

"You okay?" Hope asks.

Lightning looks at Hope, a little startled. "Yeah." Lighting looks back at Serah. "I just can't believe Serah's all grown up...I'm gonna miss her."

"Must be hard...letting go someone you love." Hope says.

"Yeah." After a moment of silence, Lightning looks at Hope. "You wanna dance?"

Hope looks at Lightning, surprised. "Me?" Lightning nods. "I-I told you, I can't dance."

"You didn't tell me, you told Vanille." Lightning points out. Lightning stands up and stands beside Hope. "Slow dancing is easy. Come on."

Lightning grabs Hopes hand and takes him to the dance floor. Hope didn't bother to argue, like he tried to do with Vanille. Lightning and Hope are on the dance floor, Lightning grabs Holds hands, moves then on her hips and she rests her hands on his shoulders.

Hope couldn't help but blush, he feels awkward about all this, slowing dancing with Lightning. It's like slow dancing with his mommy, or older sister, whatever works since Lightning's his guardian.

Lightning tilts Hope's chin, so he looking directly at her eyes, then they started slow dancing. Hope was a little off at first, then catches up. Vanille, Fang and Sazh are watching Hope and Lightning.

"Well, look at that. The kid's hitting it off." Fang says.

"No fair!" Vanille says, in a grumpy child tone. "He wouldn't dance with me!"

"Well, I think it's for the best, since he kept stepping on your feet." Sazh tells Vanille.

Lightning and Hope slow dances on the floor. Halfway through the music, Hope lays his head on Lightnings chest. Lightning wraps her arms around Hope, sighing deeply.

Hope feels comfortable in Lightning's embrace, Lightning doesn't mind being close to Hope, he is like a little brother to her, especially since she adopted him.

"I feel so safe with you." Hope mutters.

"I know." Lightning whispers. Lightning shifts her left hand to the back of Hopes head. "I'll always keep you safe."

Lightning and Hope spend the rest of the night slow dancing. Once that was done, it was late and they decided to go home. Hope falls asleep on the way home, probably tired from it being late and from the party.

After an hour of driving, Lightning and Hope returns home. Lightning helps the sleeping boy walk into the house. Hope wakes up halfway to his room. His body is still tired, so Lightning kept helping him. Lightning leaves Hope alone in his room so he can change in private. Lightning goes into her room and does the same.

When Lightning was done changing, she goes into Hope's room. Just in time, he walks to his bed tiresome. When he lays in bed, Lightning lays the cover over his body and tucks him in.

Once that's done, she stays by his side, looking at him. "You happy to have your own room now?"

Hope nods, letting out a yawn. "I'm tired."

Lightning giggles hearing that. "I can tell. Well, good night."

"Good night." Hope says, closing his eyes, falling asleep.

Lightning makes her leave. At the door, she turns off the light. As she slowly closes the door, she gets one last look at the sleeping boy, just smiles at his peaceful expression. She finally closes his door, then she makes her way to her room, to get a good night sleep as well.


	9. Day 9 - The Beach

Lightning and Hope slept peacefully at night. For Lightning, it's because Serah and Snow are out on their honeymoon. Lightning and Hope both woke up at the same time. They did their normal morning routine. They go into the kitchen, Lightning makes herself some coffee and Hope makes breakfast for himself and Lightning.

"It's real quiet today." Hope says.

"Yeah. Serah and Snow aren't home." Lightning says.

"They're on that honeymoon?" Hope asks. Lightning nods, taking a sip of her coffee. "Hey, we're alone. You know what that means?" Lightning's not sure how to feel about that. "We can spend some time together."

"Don't we already do that?" Lightning asks.

"Yeah, but this time, when we don't have to run errands, visit our dead parents, do some training and...maybe take care of each other from an illness." Hope points out. Lightning just rolls her eyes hearing that. Hope leaves the stove, stands right in front of Lightning. "Come on! Let's do something fun together! Please?"

Lightning just chuckles. "All right." Lightning looks over Hope's shoulder. "Your eggs are burning."

Hope turns around to find black smoke coming from the stove and the smoke detecter going off. "OH SNAP!" Hope shouts as he rushes back to the stove.

Hope manages to save his breakfast, even if it's a little overcooked. He has that for breakfast while Lightning has a well cooked breakfast. After breakfast, Lightning and Hope puts their dishes away in the sink.

"How about we go to the beach?" Hope suggests. Lightning declines Hope's suggestion. "Come on! It's a beautiful day. It's nice to go out and get some vitamin D.

It took some convincing, but Lightning decided to go with Hope's plan. Lightning and Hope gets ready, and by noon, they're heading out the door, all suited up for the beach.

Lightning's wearing a black one piece swimsuit that has lightning bolts on them, and also wearing some short jeans. Hope's wearing some blue swim trunks along with his yellow and orange jacket. Lightning drives the car to the northern shores of New Bodhum.

Lightning parks the car in the drive way. She and Hope heads for the beach. Of course, Lightning has to carry everything. Not much, just her book, a towel, an umbrella, a folded chair and some sunblock.

"Head's up!" Lightning and Hope were on the alert hearing that, then they see a volleyball falling towards them. Hope catches it, he's surprised to see the volleyball.

Team NORA walks up to Hope. "Nice catch, kid." Gadot says.

Lightning rolls her eyes. "Oh great. Just what I needed. What are you guys doing here?"

"Well, with Snow going out with his wife." Lightning almost throw up in her mouth hearing Yuj saying 'Wife'. "We're on vacation while he's on his honeymoon."

"And you happen to come to the beach when me and Hope are?" Lightning asks.

"It was Maqui's idea." Lebreau says.

"Hey, I wanted to have some fun. I didn't know ms. grumpy pants was gonna be here." Maqui says.

Everyone's shocked to their that, then they all look at Lightning. They can see the flare in her eyes, and the anger in her expression, and then she drops the supplies she's carrying. Maqui has unleashed the beast within Lightning.

"Run, man! Run!" Gadot tells Maqui.

Maqui runs, as soon as he does, Lightning rushes to him, of course that is until Yuj and Gadot grabs her by the arms, and Hope grabs Lightning by the waist and pulls holds her back.

"I'M GONNA KILL HIM! I'M GONNA KILL HIM!" Lightning barks.

"Lightning! Let it go! Let it go!" Hope tells her.

Everyone holds her back for a couple minutes, until she finally calms down. When she does, the rest of team NORA fled with Maqui. Lightning and Hope picks up their stuff and looks around for a spot.

Lightning stops in the middle of the sand, she sets up the chair, then plants the umbrella next to it, just to put some shade onto her spot. Hope was about to take off, but suddenly stops when he hears Lightning. "Nah-ah-ah." Hope turns to look back at Lightning, who's holding out the sunblock, waving it in her hand. "Did you put on some sunblock?"

"No..." Hope says shamefully.

"Sit." Lightning says, pointing at the ground in front of her.

Hope walks to Lightning, he sits in front of her, with his back facing her. Lightning pours some sunscreen in her hands, then rubs it on Hope's back. While she's doing that, Hope puts some on his arms, and stomach and face.

Once that was done, Hope stands up and Lightning lays on her beach chair and starts reading the book.

Hope is surprised to see this. "What? You're just gonna read?"

"Yea. I don't do beaches." Lightning says.

"But, you live in a shore town." Hope says.

"Doesn't matter." Lightning says.

Hope sighs, he's depressed he's gonna have to have fun on the beach by himself. "But I brought us out here to have fun. It wouldn't be any fun without you."

Lightning rolls her eyes, sighing and closing her book, then sits up looking at Hope. "Fine. What do you want to do?"

"Let's make a sand castle." Hope suggests. Lightning gives a disappointed glare. Hope can tell she doesn't want to do it and she thinks it's just stupid. "Come on, it'll be fun. My mom and I made sand castles when we went to the beach last year."

Lightning rolls her eyes then sighs. "Fine. I'll play along."

Lightning gets off of her chair. Hope smiles and they find a nice spot to start building a sand castle. Lightning just gives her usual cold expression through the whole thing. She's not real pleased with building a sand castle, cause to her, it feels very childish. Plus that last time she ever build a sand castle, it was back when she was Clair before her parents died. It was a nice memory, when she was very happy. But now thinking about it is just sad.

Hope goes to the sea to get some water, he comes back with a bucket filled of it. "Hey, Clair. I want to know. Have you ever built a sand castle?"

Lightning doesn't like to answer that question, hate to bring up a happy-sad memory. But she knows she'll tell him sooner or later.

"Only once...back in Bodhum." Lightning says. "I was eight and...my mom helped me and Serah made a sand castle." Lightning forced a small smile, even under that, she can't hide the sad expression. "It very happy then...but thinking back about it...just makes me sad."

Hope frowns a little noticing Lightning looking down. He understands why it would make her feel sad. "Because of your parents?" Lightning nods. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Lightning says.

Lightning and Hope continues to build their sand castle in silence. Hope works on the moat, then decides to speak. "Are you sure you want to shut it out?" Lightning doesn't say anything, doesn't even look at Hope hearing it. "You were happy back then. I understand you would feel sad just thinking about it, but it's your happy memory. I was happy when I build sand castles with my mom and I don't really feel sad thinking about those memories."

Lightning takes a moment to think about what Hope says. He's probably right. After that moment, she continues on the sand castle.

In about half an hour it was done. The sand castle is like a palace, that's about four feet tell with a wall and a moat surrounding it. Lightning and Hope stands back together, getting a good view of the castle.

"It looks great." Hope says.

Lightning puts a hand on Hopes shoulder. "It looks fine, I'll admit."

Hope looks up at Lightning with a silly grin. "Oh come on. Admit it! You had fun!"

Lightning just chuckles. But their little moment ends when the castle becomes destroyed by a falling volleyball. Lightning and Hope even got hit from the exploded sand. They had to shield their eyes from the sand, then they look afterwards.

Hope is disappointed at the results, Lightning...well, she's just giving her usual look, but inside, she's a bit mad. All that hard work and time, wasted.

Gadot walks up to the destroyed sand castle, and sees Lightning and Hope. "Oh geez, sorry about that." Gadot picks up the volleyball and leaves.

Lightning glues her eyes on the NORA man, she's not very pleased at their little game destroying the sand castle. She returns her attention to Hope, who's slowing walking to the sand castle, looking down in a sad disappointment, then gets on his knees when he's in front of it.

Hope slowly digs his hands into the ruins of the sand castle, lifting the sand into his hands. Lightning can tell he's sad their sand castle is ruin. Lightning looks at the volleyball court just ahead, seeing team NORA playing their little game.

"I don't know about you. But I'm gonna play a little volleyball." Lightning says. Lightning moves to the volleyball court, cracking her fingers. Hope looks up to see Lightning making her way to the volleyball court, there he sees NORA playing the sport. He can tell what Lightning's really gonna do, and now he wants in on the action.

"You know what?" Hope gets on his feet and follows Lightning. "Count me in."

Lightning and Hope makes their way to team NORA. When they arrive, the team paused their little, they are surprised, and scared in Maqui's case, to see them here.

"Can we help you two?" Lebreau asks.

Lightning crosses her arms. "We challenge you guys to a volleyball match." Lightning says.

Gabot walks up to Lightning. "All right, soldier girl. You and Hope against me and Maqui. A one set game, first to 21 points."

Maqui nervously stands behind Gadot, putting his hands on Gadots shoulders. "Uh, Gadot. Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Maqui's worried about facing against Lightning in volleyball, compared to her beastly temper against him earlier today. Gadot turns to face Maqui and gives him a pat on the back. "Relax, man. I got your back!"

Even knowing that, Maqui still feels unsafe. So the four players get into their places of the court. Maqui was standing across from Lightning. He couldn't take his nervous eyes of of her. Lightning looks at Maqui with a death glare, then she slides her finger over her neck.

Maqui grabs hold of his throat seeing that then gulps heavily. He can tell that she's gonna kill him. Yuj and Lebreau saw that. "Maqui's dead." Yuj says.

"I'll start preparing his will." Lebreau says.

Lightning turns her attention to Gadot, who's serving the volleyball. Lightning tilts her neck, causing a simple crack, then makes her stand, ready for the ball.

"I'm serving it up!" Gadot tosses the volleyball above him and then strikes it towards Hope. Hope serves it to Lightning, and then she spikes the volleyball towards Maqui, who cowardly moves back avoiding the ball. One point for Lightning and Hope.

"Maqui! Get your head in the game man!" Gadot tells him.

"Sorry." Maqui says, standing up.

Yuj and Lebreau saw that spike. "Yeah, he's dead." They both said.

The Volleyball match goes on from 5-2. Five for Lightning and Hope and 2 for Maqui and Gadot. Of course that ends when Lightning earns a point by doing a spike, and the volleyball hits Maqui in the face.

Maqui screams in pain and falls back. "Man down! Man down!" Maqui sits up, with his hands over his face. Everyone but Lightning looks at him with concern. "I'm fine...Oh, I think my nose is broken."

Maqui leaves the court and Yuj takes his place. The game goes on until it's 9-3, and Yuj gets hit in the head with the volleyball from Hope's spike. That one pretty much knocked him out like a light, even Lightning was impressed.

"Nice shot." Lightning says.

Lebreau and Gadot carries Yuj out of the court, and then Lebreau takes his place. The game now starts to get really rough for Lightning and Hope. With Lebreau's volleyball skills, the score is up to 15-19.

Lebreau is making the first serve, Lightning serves the ball to Gabot, Gabot strikes the ball to Lightning, and Lightning sends the ball high in the air. Lebreau can see it's gonna land in her zone, but the sun gets into her eyes and she can barely see the ball in the air.

The ball starts falling towards Lebreau. By the time she could see it, it's too late. She gets hit in the head and gets knocked out.

Gadot can see that he's on his own. Ligthning smirks and cracks her knuckles. "This ought be good."

Lebreau was taken out of the court. Yuj was able to regain conscious to see this, but he still couldn't help out with the game.

Lebreau awakes during the match.

"Hey, man." Gadot turns around to see Wakka from FFX. "You need a hand?"

"Uh...sure." Gadot says.

Wakka helps out Gadot with the match, of course he didn't last long when Lightning spikes the volleyball at Wakka's stomach. "Oh! ...Not cool man."

Wakka leaves the court, leaving Gadot alone with Lightning and Hope.

Gadot is having trouble staying on his toes, trying to cover both fields on his side of the court. The game is now match point for both teams. Hope serves the ball to Lightning, Lightning jumps high in front of the net and spikes the ball, directly at Gadot, right in the face.

When the Volleyball falls from his face, Gadot spits out about 65% of his teeth. Hope and the rest NORA members are surprised to see that, then it was lights out of the last NORA player.

Lightning and Hope wins the match. After that, the NORA members gathered, and Lightning and Hope stands in front of them, with Lightning's arms crossed.

"You guys up for another match?" Lightning asks.

"No thanks." Lebreau says.

"I'm good." Yuj answers

"In your dreams." Gadot says.

"I'd wither live." Maqui answers.

"Good. Now leave us be." Lightning looks directly at Maqui. "And I ain't through with you just yet." Lightning glares at Maqui, pointing two fingers are her eyes then at Maquis.

As Lightning and Hope leaves them, Maqui gulps hard. Why wouldn't he be afraid of Lightning? Lightning and Hope makes their way back to their spot.

"I don't think they'll bother us again." Lightning says.

Hope stands in front of the destroyed sand castle. "All that hard work, wasted."

Lightning just smiles a little and puts a hand on Hope's shoulder. "Hey." Hope looks up at Lightning. "We can still rebuild it."

Hope widens his eyes hearing that, he's surprised that Lightning would offer to make a sand castle. "You really mean it?"

"Of course." Lightning says.

"Ah! I told you, you had fun!" Hope teases.

Lightning chuckles while flicking Hope in the forehead. "Watch it, kid."

Hope laughs. Lightning and Hope gets to work on rebuilding the sand castle. During this whole time, Lightning is actually smiling. She's really showing that she's having some fun.

"Hey. You were very good back there." Lightning says. "Where did you learn to play volleyball?"

"I play it as an after-school activity sport. It was either that or wrestling and I like to come home in one piece." Hope says.

Lightning laughs at the end of that sentence. "You've made a good choice."

"What about you, Clair? Where did you learn to play volleyball?" Hope asks.

"I never played it, but Serah dragged me into so many volleyball tournaments that I started to learn the ropes." Lightning says.

Hope is surprised. "Serah's a big fan of volleyball?"

"No, but she's a big fan of her idiot husband." Lightning says. "Snow and his gang were in those tournaments."

"And she dragged you into them?" Hope asks.

"Yeah. Don't ask how." Lightning tells Hope.

In about half an hour, they've finished rebuilding their sand castle. After that, they went for a little swim in the ocean. Lightning doesn't want to do it, she's a little embarrassed to admit that she can't swim. Hope was laughing hearing that.

"Seriously? You don't know how to swim?" Hope says.

"Yeah. What's so funny?" Lightning asks.

"Nothing. It's just...I'd never expect you to never know how to swim. I thought you would know since you're a soldier." Hope says.

"I never got the chance to learn. I'm always on guard duty or training." Lightning says.

"Well, you can get a chance now. I can train you how to swim." Hope says.

Lightning feels embarrassed at that offer, a little kid teaching her how to swim. "No thank you."

"Oh come on. Let me teach you. You've taught me so many things. I want to teach you something for a chance." Hope says.

Lightning can tell he's right. She has taught him many survival and fighting skills, and now he wants to pay her back by wanting to teach her something.

"Fine." Lightning says with a sigh.

Lightning and Hope removes their clothing, Hope's jacket and Lightning's shorts, and they go into the ocean, they stay close to the shore, where the water is up to Lightning's waist and Hope's torso.

Hope teaches Lightning a few basics of swimming. During the while training session, Lightning feels pathetic. Learning how to swim from a young teenager. In about fifteen minutes, Lightning's already swimming like a pro.

The sun is starting to set, so Lightning and Hope returns home. Lightning parks the car and then she and Hope walks inside.

"That was fun." Hope says.

"It was pretty nice." Lightning says.

"Come on, admit you. You had fun." Hope says.

Lightning just flicks Hope on the forehead, not even giving him that playful smile, just her normal Lightning look. "It was pretty nice. That's it. I did had some fun, up until you were teaching me how to swim."

"Well, I think you did pretty well." Hope says.

"Not gonna change anything, but thanks." Lightning says, making her way up the stairs.

Lightning and Hope changes out of their bathing suits and into some comfortable clothes. Lightning heats up some leftover stuffed sagahin for herself and Hope.

They sit together on the table, eating in silence. It's certainly real quiet around here since Snow and Serah aren't around. After dinner, it was night time, and Lightning and Hope goes into their rooms. Hope fell asleep and Lightning spends her night reading her book.


	10. Day 10 - The Festival

In the morning, Lightning sleeps in a little late. Hope wakes up, very tiresome, almost like he had zero sleep last night. He yawns and stretches as he gets out of his bed and makes it out of the hallway. Hope goes downstairs, and goes into the kitchen.

When he's about to enter it, Vanille pops her head out of the corner. "Hiya, Hope!" Vanille says with a smile.

"GAH!" Hope was pretty startled, like Vanille is the most horrible scary thing he's ever seen. It certainly awoken him from his tiresome slumber. "Vanille. What the hell you trying to do, give me a heart attack?"

"No, silly-willy." Vanille says with a giggle.

Hope sighs, then walks past Vanille into the kitchen. "What are you doing here, Vanille?"

Hope opens the fridge. "I was wondering if you're coming to the festival."

Hope pulls out some orange juice while looking at Vanille with confusion. "Festival?"

Vanille's jaw drooped and she slaps her hands on both of her cheeks as she gasps, surprised. "Did you forget? Tonight's the grand opening of Serendipity. The future of Nautlius."

Hope pours himself some orange juice, while doing that, he looks at Vanille, with a surprised look. "Serendipity? That's tonight?" Vanille nods. "I can't believe I forgot about it."

Vanille looks at Hope's orange juice. "Uh, Hope!"

Hope looks at his cup, noticing it's over flowing. "Oh shit!" Hope sets the orange juice down. Hope moans in disappoint and Vanille just gives a soft giggle. Hope grabs a towel and cleans up his miss.

"So, you going?" Vanille asks.

"Depends, if I can convince Lightning." Hope says.

"I think you can. She'll do anything for you." Vanille says.

"I suppose that's true." Hope says.

"Well, I'm gonna run. Ciao." Vanille says, lifting her leg back and pointing at the front door at the 'ciao' part, then makes her leave.

Hope wonders about the festival, he can tell it's fun and all, but what worries him is that if Lightning isn't gonna take him. Lightning enters the kitchen, tiresome. She walks past Hope, rubbing her hand on his hair.

"Morning, Hope." Lightning says, starting the coffee machine.

"Morning, Clair." Hope says. "Hey, I was wondering...can we go to the festival tonight?"

Lightning looks at Hope over her shoulder. "Festival? What festival?"

"Serendipity. It's opening tonight." Hope says.

"Oh...that." Lightning says. Lightning sighs, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "I don't know, Hope. I would like to take you, but it'll be so crowded, and..."

"But, my dad promised he would take me there on the grand opening...you know, before he went..." Lightning nods, understand what Hope is talking about. "Let's go tonight, it'll be real fun." Lightning doesn't say anything. After hearing the ding, she pours some coffee into her cup, then turns to see Hope in front of her, with his sad eyes and quivering lip. "Pwease."

Normally, Lightning would just roll her eyes, she thinks Hope looks pathetic like this. Instead, she smiles, chuckles and then ruffles his hair. "You are really lucky you're cute, kid...Fine, I'll take you there tonight."

Hope cheers in excitement. Lightning thinks it's pretty silly, it's like Vanille is putting an influence on him.

Some the whole day seems like torture to Hope. He pretty much spend the day watching the clock, watching every hour go by, every minute, every second. You could say he's ticked off (Ha, ha. Good one Kataang9)

Later at night, Lightning and Hope leaves the house and drives all the way to Serendipity. It was a two hour drive from all the way to New Bodhum. About twenty miles away, the city becomes insight.

Serendipity is a very bright lighted amusement park, when they get closer to it, the lights being blinding, they might even have to wear five pairs of sunglasses just to see. (You could say that Serendipty is the FFXIII version of Gold Saucer from FFVII) It was hard to find parking for Lightning.

Lightning and Hope waits for a while to enter the city, since they had to wait in a long line to enter. Why wouldn't they? It is the grand opening of the festival.

Finally, Lightning and Hope enters. "Whoa!" Hope is pretty amazed at the festival. Full of fun and games and it's quite a sight to see. "This is so cool."

Lightning walks up to Hope. "Yeah, well, don't go wondering off. Don't want to lose you."

Hope looks back at Lightning, then nods. "Oh, you guys are here too?" A familiar voice says.

Lightning and Hope turns, surprised. Just as they thought, it's Serah who's with Snow. Lightning is disappointed to see Snow.

"Serah? Snow? What are you guys doing here?" Hope asks.

"We're on our honeymoon." Serah says. "Serendipity is apart of it."

"Oh great, just I want needed. Spenting time in a crowded amusement park with the worlds biggest doofus." Lightning says.

Snow walks up to Lightning, wrapping an arm over her shoulders. "Aw, come on, sis. Don't be such a grumpy dumpty."

Lightning gives a mean look, she punches Snow right in the nose. "I'm NOT your sister!" Lightning yells at him, which made the crowd get her attention.

Snow moans in pain with his hands on his nose. Serah stands next to Snow, putting her hands on his arm. "Uh, why don't we go play some games?"

"Yeah. I think that's a good idea." Snow says, in a stiff voice.

Serah and Snow walks off into the crowd. Hope and Lightning watches them leave, then Hope stands in front of Lightning, grabbing her hands. "Come on. Let's have some fun."

Lightning looks at Hope and offers a smile. "As long as it's away from that doofus, it will be."

Hope couldn't help but laugh at that little joke.

Lightning and Hope went around the festival. Hope is excited to be here, Lightning watches the boy, smiling at his enjoyment. Hope finds this one game, where you had to squirt water until the balloon explodes.

Lightning stands back as she watches the boy playing the game. Hope's balloon was the first to explode. Hope cheers in victory as he wins the carbuncle doll. He walks up to Lightning and offers it to her.

Lightning's surprise to see Hope offer her the doll. Lightning accepts the doll and smiles at Hope. "Thank you. You didn't have to."

Hope shook his head. "But I wanted to." Hope says.

Lightning ruffles Hopes hair, earning a chuckle from the boy. "You're such a sweetie." Hope blushes a little from Lightning's comment. Lightning and Hope walks around to find something to do.

Hope finds this petting zoo that's filled with chocobos and sheep. Hope finds a chocobo and pets it. The chocobo really seems to enjoy Hope's touch. Lightning smiles and giggles at the sight of Hope. After watching the boy, Lightning walks up to the chocobo and joins Hope in the petting.

After the petting zoo, Lightning and Hope wonders around the festival. Hope finds a vendor that's selling snow cones. Hope grabs Lightning and drags her to the cart. Lightning was surprised and almost lost her balance back there, but she regains it.

"Two please." Hope tells the vendor.

The vendor makes two snow cones, lemon and cherry, and gives them to Hope. Hope give the cherry flavored one to Lightning. At first, Lightning hesitates but then decides to eat it.

As they're walking while eating their icy treats, they bump into Vanille and Fang.

"Oh. I'm glad you two could make it!" Vanille says in a cheerful tone.

"Didn't expect to see you here, Light." Fang says.

"Yeah, well, Hope begged me to take him here." Lightning says.

Vanille giggles at Lightning's comment, then she gasps at the sight of the carbuncle doll. "Hope, did you win Lightning that?" Hope nods. "Aww, that's sweet. Well, have fun you two. Ciao." Vanille skips off.

"Hey, wait up, Vanille!" Fang chases after Vanille.

Lightning and Hope watches the two wonder off into the crowd, then they continue on. Lightning and Hope finds a roller coaster ride. Lightning isn't too pleased to see it, she isn't really a kind of person who can handle amusement park rides (I get how you feel, Lightning.) But Lightning can tell Hope wants to get on the ride, and she know's that he's not allowed on without an adult with him.

Lightning decides to suck it up and handle the ride. As they go up, Lightning prays that this won't be as bad as she thought, but she spoke too soon when the ride speeds up when they ride down the first hill.

While Hope enjoyed the ride, Lightning wasn't too thrilled. After the ride, Hope gets off excitedly. Lightning gets off, a little shaken. She sits down on the step to rest for a moment.

Hope receives the snapshot photo from during the ride and laughs. "Hey, Light." Hope shows Lightning the photo. "Look at this. You look pretty ridiculous."

Lightning looks at the photo, it's her and Hope. Hope was screaming with excitement with his hands in the air, while Lightning was holding on fighting screaming. Lightning looks at Hope with an annoyed expression.

"It's not funny, Hope." Lightning tells him. Hope's expression doesn't change, Lightning looks back at the photo and snickers a little. "Okay, it's a little funny."

"You're first ride?" Hope asks.

"You could say that. I'm not really that fond with amusement park rides." Lightning says.

Hope just laughs hearing that. "So, you can handle airships, boat rides, submarine rides, but you can't handle a simple roller coaster?" Hope asks.

"Oh shut up." Lightning says, shoving the photo on his chest.

Lightning and Hope walks around the park square, where they find a ton of people gathering. They wondered what it could be. Just then, the lights in the area dies down and the stage lights lit up. On the stage is Yuna from FFX (In her Songstress outfit in FFX-2) Everyone cheers for her as she begins to sing '1000 words'.

Lightning and Hope stands in the crowd, watching the girl as she sings. The song is very soothing and gentle. Hope seems to enjoy it, Lightning...well, let's say she doesn't approve of it on the outside but on the inside, it's all right.

Hope looks up at Lightning, noticing the expression on her face. "What's the matter?" Lightning looks down at Hope. "You don't like the song?"

"Hmm..." Lightning looks back at the stage. "Nah, it's all right. Just not really a big fan of music."

"Oh...I thought you were, I just thought it's the heavy stuff." Hope says.

"Nope." Lightning answers.

After the song, everyone cheers. Yuna makes a bow. Everyone tosses flowers to the girl, Yuna manages to catch a bouquet of roses, lilies and daises. Yuna smiles and blows a kiss to the crowd, the boys in the middle front row started reaching their hands and grabbing the air as if they're really trying to catch that kiss, then the girl makes her leave from the stage.

The crowd disbands, expect for Lightning and Hope who stayed in place. "She was amazing. Wish I could meet her."

"Maybe sometime." Lightning says.

When the area was clear, Lightning and Hope wonders off, that is until they bump into Yuna from a blind spot in an ally. When Hope looks, he notices it's Yuna. He's certainly surprised. Yuna looks at Hope and Lightning.

"Oh, sorry. Didn't see you there." She says with a smile.

"You...you're the girl...on stage." Hope says.

Lightning smiles a little. "I told yea maybe sometime." She tells Hope.

"Yeah I am, I take it you're a new fan." Yuna says.

"Yeah. You were awesome up there." Hope says. "The song was beautiful..." Hope nervous rubs the back of his neck, blushing a little. "You...sang it beautifully."

"Aww, thanks." Yuna says.

"Is it really right...I get a picture with you?" Yuna nods, Hope looks at Lightning.

Lightning sighs, reaching into her leg pouch. "You are lucky I decided to bring a camera." Hope and Yuna stands close together, an arm wrapped around each other. Lightning takes a picture of that.

"How about one of this?" Yuna asks. Hope was confused, but suddenly becomes shocked when Yuna kisses him on the cheek. Lightning defiantly got a picture of that, smirking.

Hope passes out from that kiss. Lightning lowers the camera and looks down at the boy with concern, then glares at Yuna when she hears her giggle. "You think it's funny he fainted?"

"Sorry. No, I just thought it was cute." Yuna says. "Is he your brother?"

"You could say that. I'm his guardian." Yuna looks confuse, and was about to ask until Lightning answers her right away. "It's a long story, I don't want to waste your time."

Lightning picks up Hope and she and Yuna departed their ways.

**A/N: Hope's lucky. At least he got to meet Yuna and he didn't freeze his blood. Unlike I did with Selena Gomez. Standing out in the cold dark rain for hours for nothing. What a shame.**

Lightning lays Hope on the park bench, so she could wake him up. Of course she had to give him a hard slap to wake him up.

"Ow!" Hope sits up and rubs his check.

"Nice to see you awake." Lightning says.

"I fainted?" Hope asks.

"Yep." Lightning takes out the camera, browsing through the photos. "Right after this happened." Lightning shows Hope the picture of Yuna kissing him on the cheek.

Hope is surprised to see that picture. "Oh..." Hope chuckles nervously.

Lightning smirks. "You like her don't you?"

"What? No, no." Hope says.

Lightning just raises her shoulders. "Okay. If you say so-Oh look, there she is."

Hope turns around. "Where?" Hope is suddenly disappointed to see there's nothing, then he looks back at Lightning to see the smirk on her face. "Okay...maybe I kind of do."

Lightning chuckles, ruffling Hope's hair. "You're cute, kid."

Hope shoves Lightnings hand off of his head. "I'm fifteen. I'm not cute."

"Whatever you say." Lightning says.

Lightning and Hope wonder around the amusement park, looking for something to do. Lightning and Hope ran into Serah and Snow. Lightning showed them the picture she took. Serah laughed at the picture of Hope and Yuna and thought it was cute, while Snow pats the boy on the back, congratulating him on his meet of a big time celebrity.

Lightning and Hope overhears fireworks are about to happen soon. The same fireworks festival that goes on back in Bodhum. Lightning and Hope decides to go and see it.

Lightning finds a good spot, a bench on the platform from the distance, away from the crown of thousands from in front to a short distance of the giant sphere. They sit together on the bench.

Lightning and Hope waits for the fireworks to go on, which is starting real soon.

"Hey, Clair?" Lightning looks at Hope, who's smiling at her. "Thank you...for everything."

Lightning smiles and grabs Hope's hand. "No problem."

"I really am glad I followed you. If we didn't became l'Cie, then maybe I wouldn't have meet you and...we wouldn't have been together." Hope says.

"We still could have, Hope. It's possible." Lightning says.

"Yeah...maybe." Hope says.

"I still remembered when we first meet." Lightning says, thinking back. "Seems just like it was yesterday, you were this sad, wimpy child but now..." Lightning gets a good look at Hope. "You've grown real brave and strong."

"Really? Thanks." Hope says.

The fireworks goes on. Lightning and Hope watches the colors of light exploding inside the large sphere It was such a beautiful sight for the both of them. It's just like that night back in Bodhum. Lightning looks at Hope, noticing he's just staring at the fireworks.

"Hope, you're not gonna make a wish?" Lightning asks.

Hope looks at Lightning. "Wishing on fireworks? Really? That's for little kids."

Lightning instantly wraps an arm around Hopes shoulders, pulling him close to her and giving him a noogie. "Who you calling a little kid, you knucklehead?"

Hope chuckles, trying to shove Lightning off of him. "Apparently, you." Silence falls in between the two. "Back in Bodhum, my mom and I had that exact conversion. She was wishing on fireworks and she asked if I wasn't."

"What did she wish for?" Lightning asks.

"That dad would be with us on the next fireworks festival." Hope looks ahead at the fireworks.

"I see. But seriously, do you want to make a wish?" Lightning asks.

Hope looks at Lightning and shook his head with a smile. "No. I already have all I could ever want."

"And what is that?" Lightning asks.

Hope says nothing at first, but then he slowly grabs hold of Lightning's hand on her lap. Lightning looks down, a bit surprised. "I have you." Lightning looks at Hope with the surprised expression. "With you in my life, what else could I wish for?"

Lightning is completely speechless, she pretty much didn't expect Hope to say that. Lightning's 'cold' heart melts and she smiles with her cheeks turning pinkish.

Hope chuckles. "You're blushing...I've never seen you blush before." Hope admits Lightning looks cute doing it.

"That's the sweetest thing you've ever said, Hope." Lightning says. "The having me part, not the other one."

Hope smiles as well. Lightning and Hope looks at each other, speechless an lost in their thoughts as the fireworks explode in the air. After the moment, they slowly lean in, close their eyes and then they kiss.

The moment their lips touched, a pink firework exploded a large heart in the air. They aren't really in love with each other, it's like a special moment kiss, you know. Basically they still love each other like brother and sister, or mother and son.

After a moment, the kiss ends. They held on to each other. Hope lays his head on Lightnings shoulder, looking back at the fireworks. "I love you, Clair."

"I love you too, Hope." Lightning says, gently stoking the boys hair.

This is certainly the best day ever for Hope. He's with Lightning, the one person who he cares and who cares for him deeply. Even through he misses his parents, he's glad to have Lightning in his life.

**END**


End file.
